Five out of the eight women governor appointments by the Modi government were from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Minority communities.
In what could be seen as the Prime Minister’s push to empower India’s Nari Shakti mission, a record of women governors have been appointed in the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.
Since 2014, as many as eight women governors and Lieutenant Governors have been appointed by the Modi government.
Women leaders like Mridula Sinha, Draupadi Murmu, Najma Heptulla, Anandiben Patel, Baby Rani Maurya, Anusuiya Uikey, Tamilisai Soundararajan, and Kiran Bedi have been given a responsibility to play in Narendra Modi’s government.
Notably, five out of the eight women governor appointments by the Modi government were from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Minority communities.
While senior Tribal leader Draupadi Murmu was appointed as the Governor of Jharkhand Muslim leader Najma Heptulla was made Governor of Manipur. Anandiben Patel got the responsibility as Governor of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. SC leader Baby Rani Maurya as Uttarakhand’s Governor, ST leader Anusuiya Uikey as Chhattisgarh’s Governor. While Telangana got OBC leader Tamilisai Soundararajan as its Governor and Kiran Bedi was made Puducherry Lieutenant Governor.
As compared to the Narendra Modi government, the previous Central governments had appointed very few women as Governors and L-Gs.
The Jawaharlal Nehru government while in Centre had appointed only Sarojni Naidu, Padmaja Naidu, and Vijayalakshmi Pandit as governors.
The women participation in Morarji Desai’s government was even lesser - Sharda Mukherjee and Jothi Venkatachalam.
Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi while at the Centre as Prime Minister had appointed only Kumudben Joshi, Ram Dulari Sinha, and Sarla Grewal as Governors, followed by PV Narasimha Rao government, which gave Sheila Kaul and Rajendra Kumar Bajpai the role of governors to play.
VP Singh, HD Devegowda, IK Gujral, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the participation of just one woman n their respective governments
It was only in Congress’ Manmohan Singh’s government that gave as many as six women major roles to play - Pratibha Patil, Prabha Rau, Margaret Alva, Kamla Beniwal, Urmila Singh, and Shiela Dixit.
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