While Indian women in politics have many global records to their credit, the country lags far behind the rest of teh world when it comes to the particpation of women in politics. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit may have been the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly and Indira Gandhi may have been one of the very few female heads of state in power for more than a decade with the tenures totalled, but India is ranked 98 worldwide when it comes to partcipation of women in politics in recent time. The country's rank puts it far behind its neighbour, Pakistan, in the rankings developed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Women members of the Lok Sabha make up just over 10 percent of the total mebership of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha - at 10.8 percent  (59 members) and 10.3 percent (25 members) respectively (data compiled in January 2011).

Pakistan is placed 51 while Nepal is ranked 18, with 33.3 per cent of female MPs in its parliament.

The IPU said there was a dearth of women parliamentarians in the Asian region. 

“Despite increased numbers of women in parliaments, with an all time global high of 19.1 percent, the target of gender balance in politics is still a distant one in many countries,” IPU press released said. “19.1 percent of parliamentarians worldwide are women. This is a small but significant gain: the proportion was 13.1 percent in 2000 and 16.3 percent in 2005,” the report said.

According to the IPU, “Cuba had fourth highest women representation (43.2 percent), followed by Iceland (42.9 percent), Netherlands (40.7 percent), Finland (40 percent) and Norway with 39.6 percent.” However, Rwanda ranks number one in the world with over 56 per cent women members in the lower house and over 34 per cent in the upper house.

It also said, “Although female participation in politics is at the bottom of the world table, the Arab States continue to progress: 4.3 percent in 1995, 9.5 percent in 2009 and 11.7 percent in 2010.” Sudan saw its first woman compete for the presidency, despite a fatwa banning women from running, the report held.

The IPU recommended quotas remain the single most effective way of increasing the number of women in politics. Many countries that have no legislated quotas in the national parliament have voluntary party quotas. Even in India, the women's reservation bill, which aims to reserve 33 percent Parliamentary seats for women, is yet to be ratified by the Houses.

Read the data compiled by the IPU