Proxy Participation by Women in Panchayati Raj Institutions- A Critical Study

History and Polity

It was very well concluded by the spokespersons of women empowerment that in traditional societies all over the world the three major factors were responsible for the poor position of the female counter-parts. Firstly women did not have a right to own property in most of the ancient contemporary societies. Secondly they were also disallowed to participate in public or political life and the third factor responsible for the backward condition of women was their non participation in legal system either as a judge or as a lawyer or even as a petitioner. Once the problem was diagnosed campaigns started all over the world to educate women to the optimum and to ensure their participation in public life. Their political role was to be determined now through political awareness and participation. The political participation of women was ensured through various Acts and regulations but due to the second grade status of women counterpart in traditional Indian social system, it gave birth to another problem and that was women as proxy participant for their male counterparts particularly in politics. The present paper tries to explore the causes of such proxy participation by women and to find out suggestions to ensure actual participation of women in politics.

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