Women in local govt improve health, education facilities: UNICEF

New Delhi, Dec 17 (UNI) Even though the presence of women in Indian Parliament remains a dismal 8.3 percent, their increased presence in local governance due to the reservation policy has resulted in improved infrastructure, health care and educational facilities in villages, according to UNICEF.

According to the State of the World's Children 2007 Report on 'Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality' released by UNICEF recently, the presence of women in the Lower House of Parliament was just 8.3 percent during 2001-04 as compared to 21.3 percent in Pakistan and 20.3 percent in China. The United States Congress had 15.2 percent women during this period while Bangladesh had 14.8 per cent and Indonesia 11.3 per cent Only Nigerian Parliament had lesser presence of women at 6.4 per cent while Brazil had somewhat equal women's presence at 8.6 per cent.

''Women are under-represented in all national Parliaments and in July 2006 accounted for just under 17 per cent of Parliamentarians worldwide. Ten countries have no women parliamentarians and in more than 40 countries, women account for less than ten percent of legislators,'' the report pointed out.

The Nordic countries have the highest rates of participation, with women representing around 40 per cent of Parliamentarians in the combined upper and lower chambers. Arab states rank lowest with a regional average of less than 8%, it pointed out.

However, due to introduction of quotas, the number of women parliamentarians have increased in a number of countries, including Afghanistan where once excluded from politics women now account for 27.3 percent of legislators.

In India, the situation remains dismal as despite decade long agitation by various women groups, the demand for 33% reservation for women in Parliament still remains a distant dream. Though many political parties have repeatedly said that they favour reservation for women, the bill not yet been passed by Parliament due to lack of consensus among all the political parties on the issue.

According to UNICEF, women's representation in national parliaments is certainly a critical measure of their political empowerment and of a country's commitment to ensuring that powerful advocates for children could be heard. But numbers are merely a necessary benchmark and not a sufficient condition for women empowerment.

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