On Saturday, the Congress panel on social justice also pushed for a quota within quota in the Women’s Reservation Bill, years after the party resisted such demands when the draft legislation was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010.

It is now common practice to infer the social status of women from their demographic characteristics. Yet it is not so easy to read through demographic progress, in terms of declines in mortality and fertility, to make unambiguous judgments about trends in women's social standing.

Status literally means position in relation to others. The status enjoyed by women in any society is an index of the standard of its social organisation.