By Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net
The number of women in Telangana State Assembly has come down this year as compared to the previous elections of 2014, when there were nine women in the assembly. This year, the number is down to only six.
If we look at the women contesting in the elections this year and the number of women that have emerged as winner the output is very poor, thereby justifying the demand for reservations for women in the elections.
In total, 186 women contested the elections this year, but only six managed to secure a win whereas in the 2013 elections, 85 women contested the elections and nine emerged as winners. As expected, the 6 women are from the two major political parties in the state: Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Indian National Congress, with both having three winners each. Of the six women who won this year, three won from ST seats while three won from general seats. No SC or Muslim woman managed to secure a victory.
The 6 women are : D. Anasuya (ST); B. Haripriya (ST) and Sabitha Indra Reddy from congress; (INC); Rekha Naik, (ST); Suneetha Reddy; and Padma Devendar Reddy from TRS. In 2014 among the nine women MLAs, there were 2 SC, 2 ST and 5 others.
Political participation of women remains poor but what is surprising is the seats allotted to women from the political parties are very few from most of the parties.
The number of seats allotted to women from some of the major parties are as mentioned below and also depicted in a graph:
| SN | Name of the party | Seats allotted | Seats won |
| 1 | Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) | 4 | 3 |
| 2 | Congress | 11 | 3 |
| 3 | BJP | 14 | 0 |
| 4 | AIMIM | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Telangana Jana Samithi | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | Telugu Desam Party ( TDP) | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | Bahujan Left Front (BLF) | 10 | 0 |
| 8 | Socialist Democratic Party (I)(SDP(I)) | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | BSP | 10 | 0 |
With participation of women being a mere 5%, the visibility of women looks like nothing but lip service. While women constitute 49% of the total population in India, their share in state assemblies remain abysmally low. The scene in all other states of India is more or less the same, even where the Chief Ministers and party heads are women.
India ranks 151 of 193 countries as on 1st November 2018 according to the data compiled by ‘Women in national parliaments – Inter parliamentary Union’.
The results of this year in Telangana State once again stress on the demand for women’s reservation bill to be passed so that in the General elections slated in 2019 we can see enhancement of political participation of women running for parliamentary elections.