No. 2009/17

New Lok Sabha has younger MPs

Women Members Cross 10% Mark For First Time In India’s History

 

With 79 MPs under 40 years of age and 36 members who are at least 70 years old, the 15th Lok Sabha is a fine blend of youth and experience. Although the new Lok Sabha has a higher number of under-40 members compared with the last, the average age of the House is higher — at 53.03 years, this is the third oldest House so far.

The 13th LS was the oldest House with the average age of members being 55.5 years. By comparison, in the last LS it was 52.7 years. With members averaging just 46.5 years in age, the first LS was among the youngest. The average age has since been increasing generally, though this trend is far from uniform. For instance, the 12th Lok Sabha was the youngest House so far, with an average of just 46.42 years.

Data also shows no direct correlation between age and the number of fresh members in the House because a majority of first-time MPs typically have had legislative experience at state assemblies or the RS. And, contrary to the notion that our netas are particularly old, the average age in other parliaments of the world is about the same as in India. MPs in the current House of Commons in the UK were 50.6 years when elected in 2005, while Japanese MPs were 52.3 years old when elected.

 

Ram Sundar Das (88), the giantkilling JD(U) MP from Hajipur who defeated Ram Vilas Paswan, is the oldest member of the House while 26-year-old Muhammed Hamdulla Sayeed, the Congress MP from Lakshadweep, is the youngest.

 

Although the women’s reservation Bill proposing 33% reservation for women in Parliament was not passed despite repeated attempts to table it, the new Lok Sabha has the highest number of women MPs ever elected in to the Lok Sabha. At 58, the 15th Lok Sabha has 13 more women MPs than the last House and nine more than the previous best of 49 in the 13 Lok Sabha.

 
The representation of women members has crossed the 10% mark for the first time in Indian history. However, this is still low in comparison with parliaments of the industrialized countries. For i nstance, UK, USA, Italy, Ireland and France have 19.3%, 16.3%, 16.1%, 14.2% and 13.9% women parliamentarians, respectively. The Sweden parliament, with 47% women MPs, has the best gender ratio in the world.

 
In terms of age and gender representation, the reserved category MPs have better averages than their general counterparts. There are 12.2% women MPs elected from reserved seats while only 10.2% of the general MPs are women. Similarly, the average age of the reserved category MPs is 51.8 years which is again lower than the general MPs whose ages averaged at 53.5 years.

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Youth Information is published by

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental network organization, committed in developing areas of mutual cooperation and understanding among different youth voluntary agencies, youth groups, clubs and individuals working in the field of youth welfare in India. 

ICYO functions as an umbrella organization of youth NGOs in India. It's family consists of
over 356 organizations spread in 122 districts of 22 states from different corners of India.

Our goal:
To improve and extend the youth work and services through Youth Organizations;
To enhance and demonstrate youth work in the society;
To promote effective youth programmmes;
To organize network of civil society organizations working towards the development of youth work;
To organize seminars, conferences, workshops, trainings;
To maintain international relation with organizations promoting young people in their programmes and activities

Affiliation: 

Consultative (Roster) Status with ECOSOC, United Nations;
Consultative Status with Commission on Sustainable Development;
Full Member of World Assembly of Youth (WAY); Asian Youth Council (AYC);
 CRIN, South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN),

Affiliate group of ECPAT International, Thailand;
ATSECE-DELHI, Indian Partner of AIDS Care Watch Campaign;
Steering Committee member of World Bank's YDP Network;
Working relation with Indian Association of Parliamentarians (IAPPD);
International Medical Parliamentarians Organizations (IMPO);
Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD);
World Youth Foundation, Malaysia.