Women Elected Representatives and Their Participation in Legislative Activities: A Study of Assam (2006–16)

Though, voting rights granted to women in most countries of the world but still women are under-represented and India is no exception. There is very minimal participation of women at the National legislature as well as in the State legislatures. In Assam also the participation of women in political affairs is very low. Even though the number of women representatives in the Assembly is minimal yet their participation in various legislative activities is something important to study. Thus, the present study attempts to understand the role of the elected women representatives in various legislative activities and to undertake the study the 12th and the 13th Assam Legislative Assemblies (2006–2016) have been selected. For the purpose of the study, data were collected mainly from the Assam Legislative Assembly Proceedings record (2006 to 2016). The Study observes that the personality of the representatives matters more than their numbers in the context of involvement in legislative business. It proves that mere numerical strength of the party is not enough for active participation in assembly deliberation. The ideology of the parties, nature of the constituency and personal attitudes had a strong influence on the participation of woman in the deliberations of the House.