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Conditions of women all over the world have been found to follow different trends. This is more relevant when we talk of their rights, duties, contributions and their incomes more often reflected in terms of increasing poverty among women especially in developing countries like India. UN statistics tell us that women own about only 1% of the property in the world, receive 10% of the income distributed in the world, while perform 66% of the total work done in the world. Even when we talk of women in governance, it is pertinent to note that in the last decade of the 20th Century, only 3.5% of the world’s cabinet ministers were women. Women had no ministerial positions in 93 countries i.e., in half of the world national policies are made without the participation of ‘better’ half (women) of the population. When we take the world as a whole, men sit on over 90% of the parliament seats, leaving less than 10% for women.
In India, the conditions are no different. Though 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments reserved one-third seats in Local Self Governing bodies for women, their representation in the parliament and State legislatures still remain below 10%. We cannot deny the positive changes that have been brought in the form of at least providing a space for women’s political participation in local self-governance. There was a time when there were only a few women in politics. But now there are about one million women on these platforms. 75% of these women belong to families, which had no members in panchayats before. Most of these women contested elections for the first time.
Many studies reveals that the Constitutional amendments have led to women’s participation, mobility, development of leadership qualities, increase in self-esteem and confidence. Women’s needs are now better identified. However, the number of problems identified with such participation is far more than the number of successes highlighted. It is often noted that women remain to be rubber stamps in the hands of their husbands and other elected male representatives who take all the decisions and use them only as signatories. But to recognize the fact that most women, within their situatedness, are tied down by the boundaries of patriarchy, social restrictions, illiteracy and lack of awareness and understanding of the issues which forces them to be projected as only proxy candidates, puppets in the hands of male politicians.
Their achievements are often underestimated and the scales of measurement of their successes fail to recognize their realities, the social set-ups they belong to. It is relevant to note here, therefore, that the scales of measurement of their achievement need to be sensitive to their realities and not same as the women with different backgrounds or as the scales used for men. For example, for a woman in a feudal society sitting with men in a meeting, though in purdah, might be a big achievement while for some it may be just crossing the boundaries of their households in which they’ve been bounded since ages.
Another important factor that needs to be taken into account is the time period within which these achievements have come up. In our context it may be too early to judge their participation and achievements given age-old patriarchal setup we come from. The struggle, therefore, is not only about including women but also creating space for them, building on their self-esteem within their realities. Women today may have been used as proxy leaders at certain places but to begin with such small achievements, getting a space for participation, representation, bigger goal of real empowerment may not be too far a goal to achieve.
Lokendra Singh Kot |
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