46% of councillors in urban local bodies are women, says report

Roadmap for urban transformation in India emphasizes women's representation in local governance and decentralized participatory governance for cities.

Around 46% of the councillors in India are women, and in 19 out of 21 capital cities that have active urban local bodies, including Patna, Shimla, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, the figure goes well over 60%.

Among the States, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of women councillors, according to a roadmap on urban transformation in India released on Tuesday.

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The other States in the top 10 are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

According to the report ‘Roadmap for India’s CitySystems Reforms’ by Janaagraha, a not-for-profit organisation working to strengthen systems of governance in India’s cities, 17 States have legislated for 50% women’s reservation, well over the constitutional minimum of 33%.

The roadmap offers three pathways for India’s urban transformation, namely place-based governance of India’s cities, decentralised participatory governance, and building State capacities.

It makes a strong case for implementing a rural-urban transition policy to facilitate planned urbanisation of fast-urbanising villages, highlighting that approximately 1,000 of them have already transitioned to cities since Census 2011.