Every International Women’s Day, India celebrates the growing visibility of women in public life. From corporate boardrooms to political platforms, the narrative of progress suggests that barriers are slowly breaking. Yet a closer look at India’s democratic institutions reveals a different reality: while more women may be entering public life, the women who reach positions of power rarely represent those who face the deepest forms of social exclusion.

The question, therefore, is not simply how many women participate in politics, but which women are able to enter positions of power. Dalit, tribal and Muslim women remain among the most underrepresented voices in India’s democratic system, confronting overlapping barriers of gender discrimination, caste hierarchy and religious marginalisation.

India’s Parliament continues to reflect a stark gender imbalance. In the Lok Sabha, only 74 out of 543 Members of Parliament are women, amounting to roughly 13.6 percent representation. Nearly 86 percent of the House remains male-dominated. While the number of women in Parliament has gradually increased over the decades, the pace of change remains slow, and the benefits of political representation are unevenly distributed across social groups.

The Double Burden of Caste and Gender

Within the already small group of women MPs, the representation of Dalit and tribal women is extremely limited. Of the 74 women MPs, only around fourteen belong to Scheduled Caste communities, while approximately seven are from Scheduled Tribes. Dalit and tribal women together therefore occupy only a very small portion of the parliamentary space.

This imbalance is striking given that constitutional provisions were specifically designed to ensure representation for historically oppressed communities. Yet even within reserved constituencies, men continue to dominate electoral politics. As a result, Dalit and tribal women often remain excluded even within spaces meant to address historical injustice.

For many women from these communities, entering politics requires confronting both patriarchy and caste discrimination simultaneously. Building political networks, contesting elections, and speaking publicly often means challenging entrenched social hierarchies that have historically kept them outside decision-making spaces. Political participation, in this context, is not merely about representation but about resisting deeply embedded structures of power.

The Political Invisibility of Muslim Women

Among marginalised groups, Muslim women remain one of the least represented communities in India’s Parliament. Since independence, only eighteen Muslim women have ever been elected to the Lok Sabha, a significant number of whom came from established political families. Considering that Muslims constitute nearly 14 percent of India’s population, this extremely small number highlights the scale of political exclusion faced by Muslim women.

Several structural factors contribute to this absence. Political parties rarely distribute tickets to Muslim women candidates, Muslim representation in Parliament has itself declined over time, and electoral politics increasingly shaped by communal polarisation further limits opportunities. In many regions, parties hesitate to field Muslim candidates altogether, further narrowing the space available for Muslim women in electoral politics.

In the current Lok Sabha, only two Muslim women serve as Members of Parliament — Iqra Choudhary of the Samajwadi Party and Sajda Ahmed of the All India Trinamool Congress. Their presence underscores how rare Muslim women’s representation remains in national politics.

The regional gap is equally striking. There is currently no Muslim woman MP from South India in the Lok Sabha. The only Muslim woman from the region currently serving in Parliament is Rajathi Salma, who represents Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha. This absence reflects how religious identity, regional dynamics and gender inequality combine to limit opportunities for Muslim women in national politics.

The absence of marginalised women in legislative institutions also raises a deeper democratic concern. When communities are not adequately represented, legislation affecting their lives is often debated and passed without their voices being meaningfully heard. Debates around the criminalisation of triple talaq, for instance, involved legislation that directly affected Muslim women’s lives but was shaped in a Parliament where Muslim women themselves had almost no representation.

Tokenism Versus Genuine Representation

One of the central obstacles to improving women’s political participation lies in how political parties distribute election tickets. In most elections, major parties allocate only about 10 to 12 percent of their tickets to women candidates. Within this already limited share, candidates from dominant caste backgrounds or established political families often receive preference.

This pattern reveals the difference between tokenism and genuine representation. Tokenism occurs when parties nominate a small number of women to signal inclusivity without altering the underlying power structure. Genuine representation, however, requires creating pathways for women from diverse social backgrounds to influence policy and political decision-making.

When most women in politics come from socially privileged groups, the structural barriers faced by Dalit, tribal and minority women remain largely invisible within the policy process.

Moments That Challenge the Pattern

Despite these barriers, there have been moments that demonstrate the possibility of a more inclusive political landscape. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election, a Jatav Dalit woman candidate, Sunita Verma, was fielded from the Meerut constituency—an unreserved seat—against a high-profile opponent. Although she lost the election by a relatively narrow margin, the contest demonstrated that Dalit women candidates can attract significant electoral support even outside reserved constituencies.

Perhaps the most prominent example of Dalit women’s leadership in India remains Mayawati, who rose from a modest background to become one of the most powerful political figures in the country. As the leader of a major political movement centred on social justice, she demonstrated that when structural barriers are challenged, Dalit women can play transformative roles in shaping political discourse.

The Paradox of Grassroots Representation

Interestingly, the level of governance where marginalised women have achieved the most visible presence is local government. Constitutional amendments introducing reservations for women in local bodies have enabled more than a million women to enter grassroots politics, many of them from Dalit and tribal communities.

This development shows that institutional mechanisms such as reservations can significantly expand participation. Yet even at this level, many women face the challenge of proxy politics, where male relatives informally control elected representatives. The persistence of such practices reflects the continuing influence of patriarchal structures even within spaces designed to promote inclusion.

An Unfinished Democratic Promise

The experiences of Dalit, tribal and Muslim women reveal a deeper structural problem within Indian democracy. Their exclusion is not simply the outcome of electoral competition but the result of historical inequalities, unequal access to political resources, and entrenched social prejudices.

A democracy is not measured only by how many women enter politics, but by whether those who have historically been silenced are finally able to speak. Until Dalit, tribal and Muslim women find meaningful space within India’s political institutions—and participate in shaping the laws that govern their lives—the promise of representation will remain unfinished.