The issue of women’s representation in legislatures is gaining traction, as India gears up for its 17th general elections in April 2019: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has promised 33% reservation for women in the parliament and state assemblies if his party comes to power; the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha will field women candidates in 33% of Lok Sabha seats; and 41% of nominees in the list of candidates released by Bengal’s Trinamool Congress are women.

There are 66 women MPs in Lok Sabha (parliament’s lower house), occupying 12.6% of its 524 seats, while the world average was 24.3% on January 1, 2019).

In more than six decades till 2014, as women’s share in India’s population remained at 48.5%, the share of women MPs increased eight percentage points to 12.6% between the first (1952) and the 16th Lok Sabha (2014). There was one woman MP for about eight million Indian women in 1952. By 2014 this was one for more than 9 million women–equivalent to the population of Austria.

Rwanda–currently ranked first in the world–has 49 women MPs in its 80-seat lower house or one woman MP for 111,000 females, according to data released on January 1, 2019 by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), a multilateral agency.

The share of women in national parliaments increased by nearly one percentage point to 24.3 per cent in 2018, noted IPU’s press statement on the yearly report released on March 5, 2019. The global share of women in parliament continues to rise; it stood at 18.3% in 2008 and 11.3% in 1995, the report noted.

In the list are 50 countries that held elections in 2018.

“More women in parliament means better, stronger and more representative democracies that work for all the people,” said IPU president and Mexican MP, Gabriela Cuevas Barron, in a press release. “The 1% increase we saw in 2018 represents a small improvement on women’s parliamentary representation. This means we are still a long way to achieving global gender parity. For that reason, we urge for greater political will in adopting well-designed quotas and electoral systems that eliminate any legal barrier that might be hindering the opportunities for women to enter parliament.”

There are three African–Rwanda, Namibia and South Africa–and no Asian countries in the top 10 list of countries with significant female representation in parliaments, as on January 1, 2019.

Female representation in state assemblies even lower than parliament

While female representation is low in the Lok Sabha, representation in state assemblies is even lower. Over five years to 2017, female representation in state assemblies was the highest in Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan (14%), according to the 2017 data released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation. Mizoram, Nagaland and Puducherry had no elected women representatives in their assemblies.

The national average of women in state assemblies and state councils (upper house of the state legislatures) was 9% and 5%, respectively.
Low representation of women in the legislature can be traced to the patriarchal structure of Indian politics, noted a January 2011 analysis by the Economic and Political Weekly. Lack of reservation for women in parliament and state assemblies, unwillingness among political parties to give tickets to women, a general lack of awareness of electoral politics among women and the lack of family support — these were some of the specific reasons for the gender skew, the analysis had said.

Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 2017; Economic and Political Weekly, 2011

There has been no progress on the bill to reserve a third of the seats in Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies for women (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment or the women’s reservation bill) though it was introduced a decade ago.

Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal government introduced a resolution in the state legislative assembly proposing 33% reservation for women in parliament and legislative assemblies, The Indian Express reported on November 20, 2018.

“No household, no society, no state, no country has ever moved forward without empowering its women,” Patnaik was quoted as having said on November 20, 2018.

Elected women representatives in the Odisha state assembly are two percentage points lower than the national average of 9%. The assembly unanimously passed the resolution.

Women representatives bring economic growth to their constituencies

There is evidence of significantly higher growth in economic activity in constituencies that elect women, noted a 2018 study by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research.

It examined data for 4,265 state assembly constituencies–over two decades t0 2012–where the “share of state legislative assembly seats won by women increased from about 4.5% to close to 8%” and focussed on the increase of luminosity, or night light, in these constituencies as a proxy for economic activity.

Women legislators in India raised economic performance in their constituencies by about 1.8 percentage points per year more than male legislators, according to the study. “We estimate that women legislators in India raise luminosity growth in their constituencies by about 15 percentage points per annum more than male legislators,” the study noted.

While the number of women in parliament and state assemblies has not grown significantly, a third of seats have been reserved for women since 1993 in local governments, made possible by the 73rd and 74th amendment of the Constitution. That move led to a current national average of 44% of elected women representatives in panchayats (village councils).

Rajasthan, Uttarakhand have highest female representation in panchayats

As many as 14 states and union territories have 50% or more elected women representatives in panchayats, according to this reply to the Lok Sabha on April 5, 2018. Rajasthan and Uttarakhand have 56% representation, the highest in the country.

“Village councils in West Bengal reserved for women, on average, invested in nine more drinking water facilities and improved road conditions by 18%,” noted an October 2018 study on the impact of women’s reservation on policy making in villages of West Bengal and Rajasthan (conducted between 2000-2002) by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a research organisation.

The study found that women constituents were more concerned about issues like water supply and road connectivity than men. As many as 31% of women’s complaints were about drinking water, and 31% were about road improvement in West Bengal, compared to 17 %and 25% of men’s, respectively. In Rajasthan, 54% of women’s complaints were about drinking water and 19% about welfare programmes compared to 43% and 3% of men’s, respectively, according to the study.

Unlike West Bengal, women in Rajasthan complained less frequently about roads. Village councils reserved for women invested in 2.62 more drinking water facilities, on average, and made fewer improvements in road conditions, “leading to 8% deterioration”, added the study on impact on women’s reservation.

In other states, quotas led to improved child health and nutrition, increased female entrepreneurship and heightened police responsiveness to crimes against women, J-PAL reported.

In the 32 women-led panchayats IndiaSpend surveyed across six districts of Tamil Nadu for a five-part series, 30% women said they would like to contest the upcoming panchayat elections even when their seat was an unreserved one. Also, 15% women said they would like to enter mainstream electoral party politics if given a chance. Across districts women complained of patriarchal hostility and caste bias.

In their search for fresh candidates, political parties in Tamil Nadu tend to ignore the large pool of successful women panchayat leaders politics and those who do join active politics are rarely allowed to rise up the hierarchy, our investigations found.

(Paliath is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

Of the centrally funded minor irrigation projects, 64% were completed in these ten years. AIBP was launched more than two decades ago as a central assistance programme for large incomplete projects that could not be funded by states.
The reasons for the failure of the programme can be traced to delayed payments, fraudulence and diversion of funds, the report concluded.

Nearly 60% agriculture in India is rainfed, and in a country where 600 million people live on farming, efficient irrigation becomes critical for agriculture productivity. The all-India percentage of net irrigated area to total cultivated area is 34.5%, Economic Survey 2017-18 noted.
The AIBP started with Rs 500 crore in 1996-97. Over the next three years, the AIBP spent Rs 1,440 crore, IndiaSpend reported on March 14, 2016. In the same period, the expenditure on irrigation projects not funded by the AIBP was Rs 700 crore.

In 2015-16, AIBP was made one of the four components of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (prime minister’s irrigation programme) which was launched in 2015 to improve on the efficiency of farm water-use, expand cultivable area under assured irrigation and introduce sustainable water conservation practises.

The audit sampled 118 major to medium irrigation projects for a decade ending 2017 and found that the cost overrun for 84 of them was Rs 120,772 crore, enough to buy 72 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of Rs 1,667 crore a jet or two times the 2019 interim budget for rural jobs programme. The Rafale price is based on the government’s purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets for Rs 60,000  reported by India Today on February 15, 2019. The government’s auditor also audited 335 minor ones and found cost overrun of nearly Rs 62 crore.

Between 2008-17, only  31% of 201 big projects and 71% of 11,291 minor schemes have been completed. Together, in a decade, the sanctioned cost of the projects amounted to Rs 239,000 crore.

Irrigated area up 20%, agriculture remains groundwater-dependent

In 14 years till 2014-15, the net irrigated area in India increased 20% to 68.4 million hectares or twice the land area of Germany, according to 2018 government data on irrigation. (In this data, the figures for 2014-15 are provisional.) Meanwhile, 13 of the last 18 years witnessed below-normal rains and saw seven drought years — 2002, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Down To Earth reported on October 1, 2018.

“Soil moisture (agriculture) drought affects crop production and food security in India especially in the absence of irrigation,” noted a January 2019 report on drought and famine in India over a century and a half. The primary reasons for the elimination of famine in India are better food distribution, availability of buffer food stocks, rural employment generation, transportation, and groundwater-based irrigation, but depletion of groundwater in northern India is a concern for food and fresh water security in India, the report noted.

3 million hectares of canal irrigated areas lost since 1991

Nearly 60% of India’s irrigation is dependent on groundwater. India is the world’s largest consumer of groundwater, extracting twice as much as China, the world’s most populous country, IndiaSpend reported on May 7, 2018.  India extracted 250 cubic kilometre of groundwater in 2010–1.2 times the capacity of Kariba, the world’s biggest dam in Zimbabwe–of which 89% was used for irrigation.

Despite massive investments in the AIBP, India’s canal irrigation is decelerating — 3 million hectares of canal-irrigated areas have been lost since 1991 and this does not augur well for insulating the country from drought, Economic & Political Weekly reported in September 12, 2009. “The best thing we can do with our surface storages is to maximise their use for groundwater banking by spreading the water over as large an area as possible,” it noted.

“Canal management needs to be improved. Many states have not hired irrigation engineers in almost three decades,” Tushaar Shah, economist and public policy specialist, told IndiaSpend in an interview in May, 2018. “Resources must be allocated for the management of dams and canals. Large irrigation systems in Punjab and Gujarat are running without such measures.”

Irrigation potential created and utilised — missed targets

During the decade audited, the irrigation potential created — total area that can be irrigated by a fully utilised project — was nearly 5.8 million ha, falling short of target by by 2.7 million ha or 32%.

The overall target for 115 major to medium projects (three were “deferred”) was 8.5 million hectares of irrigation– the size of the United Arab Emirates. Only 23% of these achieved full irrigation potential. Among 85 ongoing projects, only 63% achieved their full irrigation potential.

Source: Comptroller And Auditor General Of India (Report No 22, 2018)

In minor schemes, 39% irrigation potential was achieved against a target of 0.15 million hectares. The report cited “delayed execution of work, subsequent changes in the scope and design of the projects, commencement of work without ensuring fulfilment of essential pre-requisites such as land acquisition, delay in obtaining of clearances and non/delay in provision of rehabilitation and resettlement  measures”, as reasons for missed targets.

‘Delayed payments, fraudulence and diversion of funds’

Nine states accounted for about 75% of projects covered under AIBP–Maharashtra (48); Madhya Pradesh (19); Karnataka (17); Telangana (13); Jammu and Kashmir (13); Andhra Pradesh (12); Odisha (11); Uttar Pradesh (nine) and Jharkhand (eight).

Although central assistance provided to states for the programme during the period was Rs 41,143 crore (including Rs 2,421 crore as loan from NABARD in 2016-17), there were delays in release of central assistance to states between 2008-09 to 2016-17, the report noted.

The ministry released Rs 5,717.23 crore for 53 big projects in 16 states, 30% of the total release of funds to these projects, “at the very end of the FY, i.e. in the month of March”, the report noted. “In addition, in 11 instances pertaining to the years 2008-09 and 2009-10, funds amounting to Rs 1,030.41 crore were released after the close of the FY.”

The ministry accepted that late releases of funds were due to late submission of proposals and defects in the proposals submitted by the state governments, the report noted.

There was a diversion of funds, the report said, amounting to nearly Rs 1,579 crore in 13 states. This indicated “inadequate financial discipline, control and monitoring on expenditure by pay and accounting authorities”, the audit said. Cases of fraudulent and suspected fraudulent payments in four states– Assam, Karnataka, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh–amounted to Rs 7.6 crore.

In 18 large to medium projects in seven states and minor ones schemes in two states, nearly Rs 1,113 crore were parked in different bank accounts and personal deposit accounts, the report noted. This had the impact of inflating project expenditure and also led to idling of funds, it added.

(Paliath is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)

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Courtesy: India Spend