Only 15% Lawyers in India Are Women: Govt Tells Parliament
The government on Friday told Parliament that only 15 per cent of lawyers in India are women.
In Short
- Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said 15 per cent of lawyers in India are women
- Meghalaya has the highest number of female lawyers in the country
- Jammu and Kashmir currently does not have a functioning Bar Council
By Aneesha Mathur: The government has released data on the number of women lawyers enrolled in the country. Only 15.3 percent of lawyers in India are women, according to data tabled by the Law ministry in Parliament on Friday.
The other states where data is not available are- Delhi, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura.
The government in its reply said that data was called from the 24 State Bar Councils on the total number of lawyers and the number of women lawyers. The data was given in response to a question asked by MP Jayadev Galla in the Lok Sabha on the number of women in the Legal profession and the reasons for their attrition from the profession.
According to the data, with 821 lawyers enrolled with the Bar Council, Meghalaya has 59.3 per cent of women lawyers, the highest in the country. Uttar Pradesh stood at the bottom with merely 8.7 per cent women lawyers of over 4 lakh lawyers. No data was provided for the high courts of nine states, including Delhi.
DATA ON BASIS OF BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA
Bihar stood at third position with 1.2 lakh enrolled lawyers but no data was available of women lawyers.
Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the data is based on information given by the Bar Council of India. With regard to the high attrition rate- which shows women lawyers leaving the profession, the Ministry has said there is no study being done regarding this.
“Government has not conducted any study regarding this. It may be submitted that entering and choosing the study of law and thereafter getting into a job in the academics, legal profession, judiciary etc is totally an independent choice and depends on the interest of the individual. Furthermore, the prevalent social and family circumstance also determine such decisions”, Kiren Rijiju told Parliament.
WHAT DID THE BAR COUNCIL SAY?
Speaking to India Today, Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Mishra said that the Bar Council has ‘sent reminders to the remaining state bar councils to share the data regarding enrollment of women lawyers.’
India Today contacted the Bar Council of Delhi to inquire why the data for the National Capital was not available. Bar Council of Delhi Chairman Murari Tiwari told India Today that in Delhi, the Bar council ‘does not keep data on gender or caste’.
“The BCD does not keep a record of the gender or caste of the lawyers enrolled with us, but I can tell you that every year we have more and more women coming into the profession,” said Tiwari.
NO BAR COUNCIL IN J&K
Jammu and Kashmir currently does not have a functioning Bar Council. A petition in this regard is presently pending before the Supreme court.
The issue of lack of women in the legal profession and in the judiciary has been flagged repeatedly by the Law Minister and Chief Justice of India NV Ramana in recent months.
In September, CJI NV Ramana, at a function to honour Women judges of the Supreme court, had remarked that only around 11% of judges in India are women. The CJI called for increasing participation and representation of women in the Judiciary and legal profession.
Earlier this week, while answering questions in the Lok sabha, Kiren Rijiju had said that the government had suggested that “while sending proposals for appointment of Judges, due consideration be given to suitable candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities and Women to ensure social diversity in appointment of Judges in High Courts.”
