Though women in Himachal Pradesh have outnumbered men in terms of voting percentage since 1998, they are still getting a raw deal in terms of their representation in the legislative assembly over the years.

The performance of women candidates was the best ever in 1998 assembly elections, wherein seven women were elected, out of the total 25 candidates who had contested polls.

Out of the seven, four won on the Congress ticket (Vidya Stokes, Viplov Thakur, Asha Kumari and Krishna Mohini) and three on the BJP ticket (Urmil Thakur, Sarveen Chaudhary and Nirmla Devi). But one of the members, Krishna Mohini was unseated by the Supreme Court Judgment in 1999.

In 2012, there were 26 women in the fray, including seven from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and four from the Congress but only three candidates, Congress leaders Vidya Stokes and Asha Kumari, and BJP leader Sarveen Chowdhary won the elections.

It is rather a disappointing and discouraging number of women contestants in comparison to their voting strength (24,07,503 women voters out of total 49,05,677 voters).

In addition, the three districts of Una, Bilaspur and Kinnaur is yet to see representation by fairer sex in the state assembly.

The political parties seem very reluctant to field women candidates and a very few women are put up with them as candidates in the elections. Though, some women contested elections as independent candidates, but they never won any seat. Thus, contesting election still remains a male prerogative.

Like the polls, women’s representation in the Council of Ministers also remained very low in the state. There was no woman in the Council of Ministers from 1952 to 1971 and three has been a very few women ministers from 1972 to 2012.

The highest ever women’s representation in Council of Ministers was witnessed in 1995 when three women, Asha Kumari and Viplov Thakur were inducted as Minister of State while Anita Verma was made Parliamentary Secretary.

In present government, only Vidya Stokes was appointed as Cabinet Minister in the eleven members’ Council of Ministers.

This time around, the BJP has promised to give 10 per cent seats to women though there was no official confirmation on the same while there was no assurance by Congress on the issue.

Though there are many factors which are responsible for the low participation of women in the politics of the state, various socio‐cultural, economic and political factors obstruct women from taking part in politics.

Himachal women have to encounter many obstacles because of traditions, prejudices and social conditions of the hill society.

“Politics are still regarded as men’s affairs and political life is generally considered to be a masculine activity. The male dominating society of ours is generally reluctant to accept women as decision‐makers,” Nirmal Chandel, state convener of HP Single Women Forum and ‘Wada Na Todo Abhiyaan’ told The Statesman.

She said they had raised the demand of granting 50 per cent reservation to women in assembly and Lok Sabha elections, but no action has been taken on the same.

“The political parties cite several reasons for not giving adequate representation women. But the fact is that they don’t want us to take part in active politics as they feel insecure,” she said.

Chandel said women were given 50 per cent reservation in Panchayati Raj Institutions elections in the state but their participation has now increased to 61 percent. “The political parties knew that women have more knowledge of grassroots and can work in a better way for general public. But male dominated political outfits aren’t giving them proper for the fear of women overtaking their roles as well,” she said.