543 MPs were elected yesterday to the 16th Lok Sabha. Below is a brief
profile of the MPs gender, age, education and professional profiles.
Gender
Of the 543 MPs elected, 62 are women. This is the highest number of
women MPs elected to the Lok Sabha in the history of the country,
although by a small margin. 58 women were elected to the 15th Lok Sabha
in the 2009 general elections.
Age Profile
253 of the 543 (47%) MPs elected to the 16th Lok Sabha are over the age
of 55. In the 15th Lok Sabha, the percentage of MPs over the age of 55
was 43%. This is the largest number of MPs to be elected to the Lok
Sabha who are above the age of 55 in the history of the country.
Interestingly, the Lok Sabha has been getting older every election since
independence. Only 71 MPs (13%) have been elected to the Lok Sabha in
this election who happen to be under the age of 40.
Education Profile
75% of the MPs elected in the 2014 general elections have at least a
graduate degree. This is slightly lesser than the 15th Lok Sabha in
which 79% of MPs held at least a graduate degree. Interestingly, the
percentage of MPs elected in the 2014 general elections who do not have a
matriculate degree is significantly higher in this election (13%) in
comparison to the 15th Lok Sabha (3%). At the same time, the number of
MPs with just a matriculate degree has decreased in the 16th Lok Sabha
to 10% from 17% in the 15th Lok Sabha. The number of Members with a
doctoral degree has also increased in the 16th Lok Sabha to 6% from 3%
in the 15th Lok Sabha.
Professional Profile
In the 16th Lok Sabha, 27% of MPs elected have listed agriculture as
their primary occupation, followed by political and social work (24%)
and business (20%). If we compare this with the 15th Lok Sabha, we find
that 28% MPs had listed political and social work as their occupation,
27% had listed agriculture, while 15% had listed business. Going back to
the very first Lok Sabha that was formed in 1952, we find that the
single largest occupation of Members was that of lawyers (36%), followed
by agriculture (22%) and business (12%).
Data on Members elected to the 16th Lok Sabha can be seen here. For more data and analysis on the profiles of MPs of the 16th Lok Sabha, please send me a mail at shreya@prsindia.org.