By IANS,
New Delhi: With the results of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu assembly elections Friday throwing up two women chief ministers, almost one-third of India’s over 1.2 billion population will now be ruled by women.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa will soon take over as chief ministers, respectively, of West Bengal, having a population of 80.2 million, and Tamil Nadu, with 72.14 million population.
Already, Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 199.58 million, is governed by Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Delhi, with 16.75 million population, by Congress’ Sheila Dikshit.
These four states’ cumulative population touched 368 million or about 30 percent of India’s population of 1.21 billion, as per the provisional data of 2011 census.
In terms of area though, the four states (4.61 lakh sq km) constitute only 14 per cent of the country’s total size of 32.87 lakh square km.
Women in India have been campaigning vigorously for the Indian parliament to pass a bill according 33 percent reservation in seats to both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, apart from the state legislatures.
Rajya Sabha has passed the women’s quota bill on March 9, 2010 after it was introduced a day earlier on international women’s day. The Lok Sabha is yet to take up the bill for passing due to lack of consensus among political parties.