India ranked 88 in the number of women ministers with five or 18.5 per cent in the cabinet.
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However, women hold important positions: Sumitra Mahajan is the Speaker and Sushma Swaraj is the External Affairs Minister.
The percentage of women in parliaments worldwide barely ticked up from 22.6 per cent in 2015 to 23.3 per cent in 2016. India's percentage is about half the world tally.
In the latest attempt, it passed the Rajya Sabha in 2010 but lapsed when the last Lok Sabha ended its term in 2014 without taking it up.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal (United) and Samajwadi Party have been leading the opposition to the constitutional amendment.
Chungong said a positive development was a move away from shunting women to "soft" ministries like women's affairs and instead placing them in important ministries.
In addition to Swaraj, who has the important External Affairs portfolio, Uma Bharti is the Water Resources Minister and Nirmala Sitharaman has independent charge of Commerce and Industry.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said that women politicians were held back by a number of problems, including the lack of finance for campaigns and stereotyping.
In South Asia, Nepal ranked 48 with 29.6 per cent of the lower house seats held by women; Pakistan ranked 89 with 20.6 per cent (but with no ministers); Bangladesh was 91st with 20.3 per cent, and Sri Lanka lagged at 179th place with 5.8 per cent.
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