New Delhi, July 08: The women strength in the Narendra Modi government has gone up from six in the previous term to 11. Incidentally this is the highest number of women ministers in a government since 2004.
On Wednesday, seven new women ministers were sworn in. This was in addition to existing women ministers- Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, Sadhavi Niranjan Jyoti and Renuka Singh.
Both terms of the Manmohan Singh led government had 10 women ministers each. The inclusion of women ministers is an interesting move considering the fact that the women voters in Bihar and West Bengal managed to influence the outcome of the elections. While in Bihar, Nitish Kumar retained his women voter base, in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee registered a massive victory.
"Youngest in the history of India having significant representation of women ministers..." The Council of Ministers reflects the Prime Minister's "commitment towards women-led development & fulfilling aspirations of a New AatmaNirbhar Bharat", Union Minister, Smriti Irani said on Twitter after the reshuffle was announced.
The women ministers who were sworn in on Tuesday are Anupriya Patel, Shobha Karandlaje, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Meenakshi Lekhi, Annapurna Devi, Pratima Bhowmik and Bharti Praveen Pawar.