Women and Politics

We as modern Indians always feel proud of Indian woman who is making her presence felt in every walk of life. But there is one grey area where she has not treaded much. We are talking about politics. Politics and Indian women never shared a cordial relationship. Let us look at some facts and figures behind this frosty relation.

If we look at voting figures of general elections since Independence, women have consistently turned out to vote less than men though the gap is reducing. In 1962 the turnout differential between men and women was 17% which steadily reduced and was 8% in 1999. The presence of women elected to legislature was stable at 5% till 1980s until in 1990s it rose to 8%.

There is no denying the fact that more women representation in legislature means more empowerment for women which in turn ensures equal rights to them. But unfortunately this has not happened in India. Let us try to understand the possible reasons behind this and also what we could do to reduce this disparity.

In a major boost to women empowerment at grass root level the Indian government passed a proposal to increase reservation for women to 50% in panchayats. The law at one stroke will increase the number of women politicians at the grass roots thus making administration more gender –sensitive.

It is to be seen whether the good intentions with which such reservation is done actually serves the purpose or not. As critics point out in most villages where “women only” seats are reserved, mostly the husbands take the decisions and approach the women only for their signature only. There are cases where the women are still not allowed to go out of their houses and sit in a panchayat. Then we even heard of villages with OBC candidate where the men folk have refused to sit in the same room with a Dalit women.

There are also allegations against political families forwarding women from the families to stand in elections to hold on to power.

Much to our chagrin reports were published in newspapers about elected women being raped by ex-mukhiya “to teach her a lesson”.

Thus in such a patriarch society how far such reservation will help the women to empower themselves and come out of the boundaries of their home is to be seen.

A silver lining to otherwise dark cloud is that in states like Bihar, Uttarakhand, HP and Chattisgarh the state legislatures have themselves reserved 50% of seats for women in panchayats. Thus we sincerely hope that with encouragement from legislature the women will have more reasons to actively participate in politics and earn equal rights for themselves.