NEW DELHI: What was meant as a gesture of respect toward women ended up reminding India that it needed to improve female representation in politics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for only female lawmakers to address the Indian Parliament on International Women’s Day included silence — because there weren’t enough women to speak.

Of 543 elected members in the lower house, only 62 are women — or just 12 percent. The global average is 22 percent for women in Parliament, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union

The women who spoke in the assembly Tuesday raised issues including allowing women’s entry into Hindu temples and better education for girls. They also demanded renewed effort in passing long-stalled legislation to require that 33 percent of lawmakers be women.

“Surely, maximum governance also means giving us women our legitimate due, namely the much-awaited Women’s Reservation Bill,” opposition Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi said, chided her colleagues for failing to push it through since it was first floated in Parliament at least two decades ago.