Women’s Participation in State Legislatures, Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha:The Case of Maharashtra

History

Democracy is a system where power is derived from people and a democratic country approved right to its citizen to participate for their sovereignty. India is appeared same with equal rights and opportunities by a true democratic constitution. But world of politics in India which is intrinsically antithetical is inimical for the women till today. Historically leadership has carried the notion of masculinity and the belief that men made better leaders is still common. Consequently a nation like ours could not be benefitted politically from her half population. Being her part, The State of Maharashtra has appeared same. Independence has give birth a “new women”. Her voice is now emancipated to express political idea inside and outside of home. But the question is if they really emancipated or still influenced? My thrust is to draw attention towards its various reasons. The popular meaning of empowerment is ‘the capacity of individuals, groups and/or communities to take control of their circumstances, exercise power and achieve their own goals, and the process by which, individually and collectively, they are able to help themselves and others to maximize the quality of their lives’ . So we can states in simple manner that empowerment is a process through which one or all can achieve mastery over life and choices. At present times ‘gender empowerment’ rather ‘women empowerment’ is very significant topic of discussion. It generally includes gender equality, women’s right and their status in society, what is the marginalized manner to address women empowerment. The real empowerment expands the choices which are not restricted to establish their status in society or guarantee gender equality or provide jobs and other economic sources which enable them to maximize the quality of life. It is broader than these assumptions. Women empowerment must ensure women’s position in working atmosphere whether in home or outside of home. The mutual supporting settings increase women to achieve empowerment. Also the independence in families can make women empowered so they can make fullest contribution to society. Here empowerment should stress on increase of women potentiality to realise their strength. ‘Creating confidence among women and bringing awareness to fight for their rights is empowerment ’. For achieving this self reliance women need a platform to make powerful decisions through the access to information and resources where political participation and leadership position can open this broader window. In India, patriarchal structure of society has denied its women to enter into politics. Here women are compelled to bear lower status than men. Even unequal gender norms are present in respect of education and employment. The women here have minimal say regarding economical issues of a family. Their exposure to information and resources are also controlled by the patriarchal norms. It means their lesser status affects their political participation too. Consequently a nation like ours could not be benefitted politically from her half population. Of course, gender equality is approved by Indian constitution to provide equal political opportunity to all her citizens and more and it also empowers state to take beneficiary steps in favor of women. These procedures have elevated her status and provide opportunity to enter. But women empowerment is a matter of continued attention and a united approach which will ensure their success. Of course, the 73rd amendment of Indian constitution has succeeded to drag women out of their kitchen to main stream of life. Women are now walking with their head held high and participating in decision making politics at rural level.33% reservation of seats for women in Panchayat level (1993) and their after 50% reservation of seats on panchayats (2009) have made women self confident to join hand with their male counterparts. It is a major achievement to bring women empowerment. Thus, reservation gives women a space in the politics but their independent appearance is yet to come. It is very interesting that, in 75th years of independence India is still fighting for emergence of her daughters. Women leaders attained a clear leadership position only after they set up a party of their own or with the patronage of male leaders or mentors. The belief that men make better leaders than women is still common today. Women members are given tickets either as an act of pseudo participation or as an opportunity to attract people’s sympathy. Those who crossed these impediments, face boycotts, non-co operations, and even derogatory remarks. From panchayat to national level they have been placed in less prestigious positions like health, education, social welfare etc than central areas of power reflection such as finance, defense, agriculture, planning etc. Educational backwardness, economical dependence and lack of administrative knowledge, and communicational gap also made women less interested towards politics. Some make a distance from politics or power for long tradition of violence. The elected members either come from families who are deeply connected to politics or social welfare or new entrants without any political experience. Political participation in a shape of voting, campaigning or joining organizations are less influenced by these above situation than that of participating actual power acquiring. The actual participation in decision making to create ‘empowered’ women in our society is still over due. The participation of women in decision making is needed reservation of seats in parliament as well as state legislatives so a major number of women can enter into core politics to elevate their status. But it is still in queue. The bill supporters preach that women of India are deprived from their natural rights. To fight with discrimination and inequality they need maximized political participation for what this reservation process will help them a lot. It will also establish the gender equality in real sense. The opponents argue that this reservation will play for elites. In this way the Women Reservation Bill has been a political issue from more than a decade (since 1996). Here my thrust is to drag attention towards the question that- is reservation the ultimate remedy? Or how far it is helpful for women’s political empowerment?

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