From parliament to village councils, women are gaining a steady foothold in Indian politics. In fact, the country’s political landscape is studded with formidable female figures now... from Mayawati to Mamata Bannerjee, Pratibha Patil to Sonia Gandhi.

There used to be a time during Indira Gandhi’s era when there was a conspicuous absence of women in government. Much has changed in the last 30 years.

This year, for the first time, India has the highest number of female members of parliament. In the 2004 elections, there were 45 women elected as MPs, said a report on Tabla Asia One.

This year, the Lok Sabha (parliament) elections delivered a record 59 female MPs. Today, the representation of women has crossed 10 per cent for the first time, defining a new role for women in India’s political arena.

In 2008, Sheila Dikshit hit the headlines by being elected to office for a record third consecutive term as chief minister of Delhi. In another milestone, Meira Kumar made history by becoming the first woman to be elected as the speaker of the Lok Sabha. In the 2009 elections, voters gave a thumbs up to women candidates across all states, from Supriya Sule in Maharashtra to Vijaya Shanthi in Andhra Pradesh to Deepa Dasmunsi in West Bengal, ushering in a new line-up of female faces in a male-dominated stronghold.

Against this backdrop comes a turning point for women’s empowerment. The Indian government has approved raising the reservation quota for women in panchayats from 33 to 50 per cent. Back in 1992, the 73rd amendment to the Constitution allotted one-third of all seats to women in panchayati raj institutions.

The idea behind this landmark legislation was to empower women at the grassroot level and give an impetus to political participation by women. The panchayat or the village council is an elected body of five persons and is seen as the fundamental pillar of rural government in India.

The belief is, if more women are inducted into local government, they in turn will help improve the lot of rural women and children in the country by focusing on issues closer to their hearts like education and healthcare.

Ms Gita Sen, professor at the Centre for Public Policy in Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Management, says raising the reservation quota is certainly a step in the right direction. But she points out it is the implementation that remains fraught with challenges.

“What will affect the impact will depend on the way in which the struggle for control over the panchayats and urban bodies, between civil servants and politicians is resolved in different states. If genuine local participation and governance win, then the increase in the quota can have a strong impact,” she says.

But while women are making strides in the political arena, does that translate into a shrinking of the gender gap in Indian society? Not everyone believes that is so.

Ms Pamela Philipose, a former editor at the Indian Express who now runs the Women’s Feature Service, says: “A great deal has changed and nothing reflects that more than the fact that gender is now a topic of discussion and policy. However the question remains, how substantive is this change?

“There are no easy answers, especially given the fact that most of the women who have made it in politics today have done so because of familial ties.”

Year after year, India continues to rank at the bottom of global rankings for gender equity. According to the 2009 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, India ranks 114th out of 134 nations in gender equity, below Nigeria and Kuwait and trailing China and Latin America.

The rankings are based on economic participation, political empowerment and access to education and healthcare.

As the cliche goes, India is a land of paradoxes, where the dichotomy continues to bewilder and perplex. In the same country where goddesses are exalted, female foetuses are aborted.

So, while in some parts of the country young girls are married off at puberty, the flip side is a feminist renaissance of sorts, most visibly in Bollywood, where the in-your-face female sexuality has assumed a new dimension, shattering traditional stereotypes.

Ms Deepshikha Kiyawat, who heads Business Intelligence for Asia at Bristol Myers Squibb in Singapore, says: “Paradox is good. It keeps intellectual thought alive and forces innovation. Gender equality is on the rise, more apparent in the cities and the growing upper middle class. Freedom of thought, sexuality, lack of inhibition and confidence comes with economic independence and education. So I agree that we are on that path and, in the future, we will see the rise of many more Priyankas and Katrinas as well as more Sheila Dikshit and Indra Nooyis.”

Many echo this view, recognising the fact there will always be parallel Indias, where women will play multiple roles. The modern Indian woman is asserting her individuality, stepping into the work force, into corporate boardrooms, shedding her inhibitions as reflected in popular culture, in movies and television shows.

But some feel Bollywood and the current slew of TV dramas are regressive for women because of the manner in which they are projected.

Ms Radhika Dhall, who lives in Singapore, says: “Dancing in ghagras has been replaced by dancing in miniskirts. The Bollywood heroine is not the best symbol of the progress in women’s liberation. It is kind of ironical, because even though women are portrayed as open about their sexuality, that sexuality is still not an expression of self, it is still displaying them as objects of sex.

“They may have become more Westernised and the image may not be that of a sati-savitri anymore, but it doesn’t imply that they are being projected as powerful equals. Few movies show the real challenges faced by women, most still depict the woman as something to be desired.”

The march for equality will be a long one. The urgency lies in improving the lives of those women who continue to languish at the bottom of the gender equity ladder and who deserve equal access to education, healthcare and dignity.