Flagging a lack of diversity in the composition of Information Commissions, a new report has revealed that a mere 5% of them have been headed by women and none at present has a female leading it.
The report found the gender composition of commissions to be extremely skewed. Since the passage of the Right to Information Act in 2005, merely 9% of all information commissioners across the country have been women.
A total of 12 Information Commissions, which is around 41%, have never had a woman commissioner since they were constituted namely — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, says a report compiled by the ‘Satark Nagrik Sangathan’ (SNS) on the performance of the 29 Information Commissions set up under the RTI Act across the country.
