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BJP amplifies female voices while Congress mutes women MPs, new data shows

The 17th Lok Sabha sent more women to Parliament than any before it, and the 2023 Women’s Reservation Bill promises to take that number much higher. But counting seats is only half the story. Based on debate and question data from the 15th, 16th and 17th Lok Sabhas shows the two largest national parties behaving in opposite directions. The Congress consistently mutes its own women; the BJP consistently amplifies them.

On paper, the 17th Lok Sabha was a small breakthrough for women in Indian politics: seventy-eight female MPs, more than ever before. The Women’s Reservation Bill, passed in 2023, promises to take that number much higher. But counting seats tells us only half the story. When we look instead at voice, at who actually speaks in parliamentary debates and asks questions of the government, a different and much less flattering picture emerges.

Drawing on the full archive of debate interventions and questions compiled by PRS Legislativ Research for the last three Lok Sabhas, we computed a simple metric: the voice ratio. It is the share of a party’s parliamentary interventions contributed by female MPs, divided by the share of the party’s seats held by women. A ratio of 1.0 is parity; women speak in exact proportion to their seats. Below, they speak less than their numbers would predict. Above, more. To keep the comparison tight, we focus on the two largest national parties: the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress.

The Congress silences its own women

In every one of the past three Lok Sabhas, female Congress MPs have spoken far less than their seat share would predict: a voice ratio of 0.61 in 2009-14, 0.78 in 2014-19, and 0.57 in 2019-24. Translated into plain English: in the 17th Lok Sabha, women held 13% of Congress seats but accounted for only 7.4% of the party’s debates and questions combined. Over three terms, fifteen years and two regime changes, the Congress has not once managed to amplify its own women MPs in proportion to their seat share.

The BJP, by contrast, amplifies

Female BJP MPs have been at or above parity in every term: a voice ratio of 1.08 in 2009-14, 1.25 in 2014-19, and 1.16 in 2019-24. Whatever one makes of the party’s politics, the internal numbers are unambiguous. When women enter the BJP’s........

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