“Women themselves have the right to live in dignity, in
freedom from want
and freedom from fear” ---Kofi Annan
The equality of men and women in the matter of
right cannot be detached from the perspectives of national development since
they form an integral part of development. In spite of the equal rights
conferred to them, women are still second class citizens as they have been
deprived of opportunities for participation in the development process. Without
full and informed participation of women, development projects are unlikely to succeed.
If we want women to contribute their maximum to the development of the nation
and to the reconstruction of the society it becomes imperative that the disequilibrium
suffered by them is removed. Hence the need of the hour is to create an environment
that ensures dignity to women by helping her to overcome feelings of
powerlessness, face the challenges, and enjoy fully her human rights. Women,
also have to realize their inner potential and strength.
India has been working for the
empowerment of her women ever since independence. The government has been
pushing ahead with programmes and policies that aim at imparting education to
women, giving them better health care and providing them with means of
livelihood. But despite these measures in favor of Indian women, they continue
to suffer from societal discrimination. While reservation in panchayats or
parliament is important, the real challenge is to ensure that women are
involved in the decision making process at home and in society. This was made
clear by Ms. Anupama Hazra when she stated that “reservation of seats for women
in panchayat or in parliament, however, is only the first step to ensure that a
certain number of women will be involved in decision-making process of the
government. Very next task and challenge will be to develop their capacity so
that they can perform their role properly and can make a difference”1.Since
women look at development in a different way they must be involved in the
planning and implementation of all development programs. The lack of female
representation and participation is a failure of democracy because they
constitute half the population of India. In this paper our attempt is to look
into the reasons for this inadequate participation of women in political
affairs and to suggest some measures to alleviate some of the problems of
women’s low participation so as to make them equal and effective partners in
the political process.
Role of
women in the political sphere of India
The first impetus of Indian women
to come into the mainstream of social life was given by the freedom movement.
According to Gandhi, “Woman is the companion of man gifted with equal mental
capacities, she has the right to participate in every minute detail in the
activities of man and she has an equal right of freedom and liberty with him”.2
A number of women participated in congress meetings and activities and they
contributed significantly to the Swadeshi
movements and Home Rule League. This marked the beginning of a new era for the
Indian women.
Women leaders who had
functioned as equals of their male comrades in the freedom movements decided
that absolute equality in the political process would be the ideal remedy to
realize women’s status in society. The Indian National Congress under the
leadership of Mahatma Gandhi decided to ensure legal and political equality for
women in free India. Hence with independence women were granted equal status
with men. The government made all efforts to raise the status of women in the
various fields through legislation. Compulsory education, the Hindu marriage
Act, raising the marriage age, the Adoption Act, Dowry Prohibition were all in
favour of women. As a result of these series of laws, the legal and political
position of Indian women improved considerably. The special attention paid to
the needs and problems of women and recognition of political equality was
undoubtedly a radical departure from the norms that prevailed in traditional
India. But as far as the participation
of Indian women in the political arena is concerned, a number of constraints
have tended to severely limit their participation capability. Indian women
suffer from poor nutrition, shortened life spans and extremely high rates of
illiteracy. Thus we can see that Indian women are on a very weak footing with regard
to health, education, mortality rate or any other development parameter. The
most urgent need is to involve women in the development process, which will
strengthen women’s capabilities and thereby instill a sense of self-confidence
in them.
Political participation is a necessary ingredient
of every political system and in democracy it assumes greater importance. But
“women constituting 50% of the population have long been neglected in their
role as beneficiaries in the process of development. They are lagging behind
economically, socially and politically in the society”.3So if our
country has to progress unimpeded, women who form half of the population has to
become equal partners with men in shaping free India. When women themselves
realized that they were heavily handicapped in society, they began demanding
reservations.
The 73rd Amendment of our
constitution in 1993 was a major milestone which ensured reservation of not
less than 1/3 of the seats for the women. The impact of reserving 1/3 seats for
women in the PRI’s has been fruitful to some extend. It was expected as an
important measure to draw women into the political process and into the
leadership positions in the three tier government system. The Amendment aims to
remedy the constitutional and legislature weakness which had impeded the
participation of women in the political process. It was expected to ‘empower’
women and bring them into the mainstream of social and economic development. It
has provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of panchayats and
municipalities for women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in
decision making at the local level.
In the political arena, a fundamental
reform of democratic governance has been set in motion with the 73rd
and 74th Constitutional Amendments. By providing 33% reservations
for women in panchayats, government claims that they have empowered women. The Act also seeks to delegate political
authority to women to implement schemes which affect their lives most. Thus
gender based reservation is expected to act as an enabling mandatory measure to
draw out women and enhance their participation. By this reservation it was
believed that Indian women can share the responsibilities in PRIs and can persuade
the members to adopt the policies in favour of them.
The Women’s Reservation Bill 2010,
approved by the Upper House of Parliament is another major step which aimed at
giving more political space to women and ensures their active participation in
the development process. Through this Bill, it is intended to reserve one-third
of all seats in national and state legislatures for women. This has been hailed
as a historic step towards a constitutional amendment that would ensure
significant representation of the women in the Indian Parliament. If this bill
is implemented the number of women representation would increase three times so as to reach 181.There is no doubt that
democracy will be strengthened with the presence of more women in the political
arena through reservation. But the members of various political parties have
exposed themselves in their true colors by opposing the bill for women’s
reserved seats in Parliament and State Legislatures. Their objection that the
bill did not provide for reservation in favour of women of the backward classes
and the minorities is a façade for their real grievances that men would lose so
many seats. Men need to be educated and made conscious of such male chauvinism
which exists in spite of their formal education and cultural sophistication.
Reservation policy and some other measures taken for the empowerment cannot
bring about a change in societal outlook towards women and women’s issues. This
is because even though these initiatives have created the political space for
women, they have not been able to guarantee a non-discriminative or conducive
environment for women to participate in the political processes. Reservation
will not actually make a difference to overall empowerment of ordinary women.
As it is stated by Anchal Singh and Monica Srivastava “reservation becomes
meaningful only when women can sustain their political activities through
repeated election or make their presence feet in the decision making bodies of
all strata”4. The Bill if passed will not pave the way by itself to
the all-round improvement and amelioration of the women’s position in society. Because
social acceptance, sensitivity to equality and education for a girl child
though being the cornerstone for the empowerment of women has been a neglected
field in the post independent India. . To improve their conditions it is a must
that they should be drawn to the decision making processes.
Women’s
Empowerment:-
To define it simply empowerment means women’s control over resources and
the power to take decisions on all major issues concerning her life. According
to Dr. B. Vanitha “Women’s empowerment is a process whereby women become able
to organize themselves to increase their own self reliance, to assert their
independent right to make choices and to control resources which will assist in
challenging and eliminating their own subordination. The goal of women’s
empowerment is to address issues related to women’s subordination, inequality
and equity”.5 Empowering women enhance their ability to influence
changes and to create a better society.
There is urgent need for
improving access of women to national resources or for ensuring their rightful
place in the main stream of economic development. Educational attainment and
economic participation are the key constituents in ensuring the empowerment of women.
So to raise the status of women, women must be economically, socially and
politically empowered. A glance at the below table clearly denotes that number
of seats occupied by women in Indian Parliament is comparatively low to men.
General
election & Women’s Representation in the Parliament
|
YEAR
|
TOTAL NO: OF SEATS
|
NO: OF WOMEN
MEMBERS
|
PERCENTAGE TO TOTAL
|
|
1952
|
499
|
22
|
4.4
|
|
1957
|
500
|
27
|
5.4
|
|
1962
|
503
|
34
|
6.8
|
|
1967
|
523
|
31
|
5.9
|
|
1971
|
521
|
22
|
4.2
|
|
1977
|
544
|
19
|
3.5
|
|
1980
|
544
|
28
|
5.1
|
|
1984
|
517
|
44
|
8.1
|
|
1989
|
544
|
27
|
5.2
|
|
1991
|
544
|
39
|
7.2
|
|
1996
|
543
|
40*
|
7.4
|
|
1998
|
543
|
43
|
7.9
|
|
1999
|
543
|
49
|
8.8
|
|
2004
|
543
|
45
|
8.2
|
|
2009
|
543
|
59
|
10.1
|
*One
member was nominated by the president of India.
These 59 members who have been elected to the
15th Loksabha form only 10% of the total members. A majority of 23
MPs are from Congress and the BJP has 13 members. The following table clearly
indicates that Indian political parties have shown little commitment to women
representation.
Party wise position of Women Members
in 15th Lok Sabha
|
Congress
|
23
|
|
BJP
|
13
|
|
Trinamool
Congress
|
04
|
|
BSP
|
04
|
|
SP
|
04
|
|
JD(U)
|
02
|
|
NCP
|
02
|
|
Akali
|
02
|
|
CPM
|
01
|
|
DMK
|
01
|
|
Shivasena
|
01
|
|
RLD
|
01
|
|
TRC
|
01
|
Courtesy: ‘Third World Impact’, Vol.XX, No.182
This low representation of women
is because they are not encouraged in the field of politics. Due to the lack of
encouragement, their interest turns to household work. The above analysis shows
us that Indian women are comparatively in a poor state of economic, social and
political empowerment. “The continuing under representation of women prevents
their proper participation in the decision making process in the country. The
success of a few in reaching positions of power and dignity may, to the
uninformed eye, suggest the existence of full opportunities for such
participation, but we have shown that this is far from so in the political
process or in economic activity, in education and in general social status.”6
Despite efforts to raise the social status of women for more than a century,
India still ranks 118 among the 177 nations on gender equality according to the
Human Development Index for 2008. Women form a significant proportion of our
population and represent sources of untapped potential- a cause and consequence
of our country’s slow progress. Governmental programmes have been launched
towards the empowerment of Indian women but only effective and strict implementation
through the political participation of women will help us to achieve the
desired goal.
POLITICAL
PARTICIPATION
The key points in the empowerment
programme include right, awareness, participation and integration. A symbolic
representation of this is shown in this diagram.
Integration
Participation
Awareness
Rights
Individual
Courtesy to Ms. Ranjana
Kumari
Just as rights do not automatically
guarantee awareness, awareness does not automatically guarantee women’s
participation. Special attention must be given to the crucial link between
awareness and integration. Participation is the point where women are taking
decisions along side men equally. To reach this level, however, mobilization is
necessary. By organizing themselves and working collectively, women will be able
to increase their representation which will lead to increased empowerment and
ultimately to greater control.
Participation of the women
in planning their own programmes and identifying issues and implementing
activities for them will lead to involvement of women in all phases of
development. So we should mobilize women and ensure their participation in all
programmes and developmental activities and politics is no exception. This was
rightly pointed out by Ms.Ranjana Kumari when she stated that “Without adequate
awareness on the part of women of their own power and importance in the
political process, they are unlikely to exert the pressure necessary to
transform male-oriented projects into integrated ones”.7 Women’s
voice should be heard in all matters and when they are given the chances they
come out with useful suggestions. When women’s leadership inputs are sought out,
a number of women will find the time for development activities. Overcoming
barriers to women’s participation in the development process constitutes the
greatest challenge in drawing out and involving women in the policy and
decision-making process. So, our strategies to integrate women more effectively
into development programmes should include,
(1)
Education and technical training,
(2)
Moving women into decision making positions through local
bodies,
(3)
Making sufficient opportunities available to them to enable
them to get access to socio-economic resources and a sense of self confidence.
This will encourage women
to participate in policy and decision making bodies and ensure their
broader-based participation in socio-political development at all levels.
Conclusion
To conclude, we can say
that unless women are brought in the decision-making levels directly, important
issues will never be tackled with the consciousness they require. Beside
illiteracy, dominance of patriarchal values in the society, lack of access and
control over income and other resources, restrictions to public spaces and
insensitive legal systems continue to impair their effective political
participation. Women’s political efficacy is thus very low due to a combination
of educational, social and financial constraints. If the current situation
continues, India will have to face a gloomy future. Hence what is needed is
that the government has to provide a good social environment to promote women
to participate in political activities. More efforts should be taken to bring
about good self development among women right from their childhood. Increasing
female literacy, empowering women to make independent financial decisions,
encouraging women help groups and opening markets for their outputs,
formulating women friendly policies at both state and central levels will
definitely go a long way in helping the women to participate in the political
issues and have an influence on decision making processes of the country. This
will help to remove the existing inequalities to a great extend and bring about
gender equity in the political arena also.
Reference:-
1.
Hazare, Anupam : “The Women Reservation Bill: Can we hope for
gender equality”-
Kurukshetra, June 2010, p.10.
2.
Gandhi, M.K :
“India of My Dreams”, Ahmedabad : Navajivan,1947,p223
3.
Nelasco, Dr. Shobhana : “Status of women in India”, New Delhi
:Deep&Deep,2010,p.2
4.
Singh, Anchal & : ‘Women Reservation Bill is it is a mode of
empowerment or just
Monica Srivastava another
reservation’ -Kurukshetra, June 2010, p .25.
5.
Vanitha. Dr.B : ‘Micro-Credit & women’s empowerment with
special reference to
Swarnajayanthi
Gram Swarozgar Yojana’-Social Welfare, March, 2010, p.26
6.
Towards Equality, Report of the
Committee of the status of Women in India: Delhi, Ministry
of
Education and Social Welfare, 1974, p.356.
7.
Kumari, Rajana, ed: “Women
in Decision making”: New Delhi, Vikas Publishing House,
1992 p.11.
Dr.P.I.Devaraj,
Dr.Syamala.K,
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