In recent decades, India has witnessed the remarkable emergence of women as crucial drivers for participatory democracy. Women’s participation as voters has impressively increased over the years in every election at national and state levels. Alongside women emerging as influential voters, their representation in local structures of governance, also called local self-government, is one of the highest across countries in the world. India is among the early adopters of gender quotas at the local government level, with very high participation by women in rural and urban areas. With the adoption of the Women’s Reservation Bill in 2023 for national and state legislative assemblies, it is timely to assess the impact of gender quotas on India’s urban self-governance institutions over the past three decades.

Read more at: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/mapping-women-s-leadership-in-cities-in-india