PARLIAMENT AND STATISTICS

• Notwithstanding the rising share of youth in the total population of the country, the number of parliamentarians aged 35 and below in the Lok Sabha has dwindled to a record low
• Documents available on the Lok Sabha portal show that while this number stood at 82 in the First Lok Sabha (still the highest ever), it is 21 in the ongoing 17th Lok Sabha.
• Their number has fallen by a fourth despite the total number of seats in the Lower House increasing from 499 to 545 during this period, and despite the rising youth population in the country
• As per Census 2011, about 66% of India’s population was below 35 years of age. Given the dwindling number of young MPs, the average age in the Lok Sabha has risen over the years  from 46.5 years in the First Lok Sabha (1952-57) to 55 years in the 17th (2019-2023)

• Women’s turnout has been steadily increasing since 1962, the earliest year for which data is available.
• That year, 62% of the male voters and 46.6% of the women electors turned out to vote; by the time of the 2019 polls, women had left men behind, at 67.2% voting compared to 67%
• Correspondingly, the number of women candidates has also risen, from just 45 in the 1957 Lok Sabha elections (the second) to 726 in 2019
• However, their share in the Lok Sabha ranks remains low. In the first Lok Sabha (1951), there were 22 women MPs, 4.41% of the total 489
• In 1957, 27 women got elected out of 494 total. The figure of 78 elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is the highest ever, but it is still only 14.36% of the total, That makes it less than half of the 33% seats envisioned to be kept aside for women by the women’s reservation Bill.
• The last initiative to pass it was by the UPA government in 2008, when it introduced it in the Rajya Sabha to ensure it didn’t lapse with change in government. However, the Bill failed to clear the Lok Sabha in 2010

• With the Houses sitting for fewer days and passing fewer Bills, there has been an uptick in the ordinances promulgated by the Union government.
• From 1952 to 1965 (a period of stable Congress governments in power), the number was in single digits. From 1966 to the early 1980s (when the period of political uncertainty at the Centre began), it rose to double digits per year
• This number again saw an increase during the 1990s (when there were coalition governments), but fell between 2002-2012 (starting from the Vajpayee era and lasting into the UPA I and II governments)
• Since 2013 (one year before the Modi government came to power), there has again been an uptick in the number of ordinances issued by the Centre