Missing link in political empowerment of women
For all their stirring speeches while passing the women’s reservation Bill in Parliament, political parties across the board have gone back to their usual stinginess in fielding women candidates.
Nobody knows when the women’s reservation Bill will kick in. But until that happens, the proof of intent can be found in the number of women candidates contesting in 2024.
The picture is dismal. Of 1,625 candidates in the first phase, only 8% (134) are women.
Our outgoing Lok Sabha had the highest representation of women. But even then, at 14.72%, it was far below the global average of 26.9%.
We have a cadre of over one million women grassroots leaders thanks to reservations in the panchayats and local governance bodies. Why aren’t we seeing these women in the state assemblies and Parliament? Or, for that matter, promoted within party organisations?
The story might not have been as depressing if it wasn’t for the fact that women’s representation has been so slow to change since 1952 when we elected 22 women to Parliament. Still, that wasn’t our worst year. In 1977, the women’s representation in Lok Sabha plummeted to 3.51%.
But if you measure political participation in terms of voter turnout then we’ve done remarkably well. In 2019, we closed the gender gap with women voter participation at 67.18%, higher than male voter participation at 67.01%. There is evidence that women voters are increasingly making independent choices. In 2009, only 43% of women said they exercised their own choice. Ten years later in 2019, it was 81%.
It is these women that parties can no longer ignore. And, so, (drumroll) the resounding slogans of nari shakti (women’s power), the free bus fares and subsidised gas cylinders, and the cash hand-outs.
As voters, women aren’t a homogeneous block. We come with our individual thoughts and wishes. But if we were to generalise, then we tend to look at rising prices, gas cylinders, availability of water and electricity, roads, the state of our schools, affordable health care, and law and order.
What we aren’t demanding is that parties share power with us. What we aren’t showing is our displeasure by voting out parties that systematically exclude women. Because, let’s face it, if every party is guilty of exclusion, we would be left with the NOTA option.
And so, it remains business as usual, Bill or no Bill. Parties feel no compulsion to give women a seat at the high table.
Women in India continue to hover on the peripheries — and not just in politics. We are less than 14% in the high courts and our labour force participation is around 30%. This is happening at a time when we’ve closed the gender gap in education.
We’ve been hearing the same excuses for excluding women for decades — women can’t win elections, and there are no trained women leaders. If 2024 tells us one thing then it is this: The men won’t give up power until they have to. Women will just have to wait.