Reform deferred or democracy deepened?

India has long had women voters. What it has lacked are women lawmakers.

For decades, women have participated in elections in numbers equal to, and often exceeding, men. Yet their presence in legislatures has remained limited. In the current Lok Sabha, women account for only about 14% of members, despite forming nearly half of India’s population. The women’s reservation Bill, which provides for one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, seeks to correct this imbalance but it also raises a more difficult question: Is this a decisive reform, or a promise deferred?