“It is very difficult for a woman to make up her mind to enter politics. Once she makes up her own mind then she has to prepare her husband and her children and her family. Once she has overcome all these obstacles and applies for the ticket then the male aspirants against whom she is applying makeup all sorts of stories about her. And after all, this when her name goes to the party bosses, they do not select her name because they fear losing that seat”

The above quote of late Sushma Swaraj gives a glimpse of reality that how women have to face so many problems and criticisms while entering politics.

Since pre-independence to till now it has been seen that women are always marginalized in the mainstream of politics and in decision making as well as in getting an important position in the political organization and also in our society. But it has been seen that men and women also played an equal role for the development of the nation, they have worked shoulder to shoulder in pre-independent as well as in post-independent India.

Indian constitution is one of the strongest law that provides equal opportunity to both men and women in socio-economic and political aspects. But our societal norms, customs and patriarchal set up treated them as subordinate to men. Their financial dependency upon men also keeps them away from political activities or affiliations. United Nation’s 2008 survey shows that India marked the lowest number of women’s participation in parliament i.e. 9.1%. Even a country like UAE marked better than India in the perspective of women’s participation in parliament i.e. 22.5%. It was seen that the 15th Lok Sabha election has recorded 59 women as a member of parliament highest since independence. India ranked 148 out of the 193 nations with 11.48 percent women in the lower house and 11 percent in the upper house.

Government Initiatives and Constitutional Provisions

The Women’s Reservation Bill which allows 33% of reservation for women in the elected bodies but the bill is still reserved in the Lok Sabha after it was passed from the Rajya Sabha. As it has been already stated that the constitution provides equal opportunity to all citizens of India, the constitution also called the state to take measure to neutralize the socio-economic, political, educational and political disadvantages faced by women.

• Article 14 – It guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of law within the territory of India.
• Article 39(b) – has provision for equal pay for equal work for both men and women.
• Article 325 and 326 – They guarantee political equality equal right to participation in political activity and right to vote respectively.

Success Stories of Indian Women in Politics

There are many stories of success of Indian women in ancient, medieval as well as in the modern period. It is believed that administration and politics both are the arenas of men. However, in India, we have seen that many women have played and are still playing an important role in both the above-mentioned areas. Late Indira Gandhi has served the nation as the first PM of India and her daughter in law Mrs Sonia Gandhi is the present president of Indian National Congress and was the former chairperson of UPA. The first Indian to serve as the President of the United Nations General Assembly was a woman, Vijay Lakshmi Pandit. States like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir have had women as a chief minister in past. The highest decision making of CPI(M) i.e. Polit Bureau has two women representative out of its thirteen members body.

If we compare between two foremost national parties INC and BJP in respect of giving the nomination to female candidates, it shows that INC nominates more female candidates than BJP. It was in 2009 co-incidentally when both the parties gave the nomination to an equal number of female candidates i.e. 43.

Obstacles to Women Participation in Politics and the Role of Media in Changing the Societal Mindset

One of the main obstacles is the societal obstacle. It is mainly believed that the main work of a female is to do household chores and child care and keep herself within the boundary of the house. Managing the outside world is the work of a male. It is also believed that women have a lack of ability in case of giving leadership.

Due to the advancement of news media, print media and social media are playing an important role in changing the mindset of society. Women participating in mainstream politics not just of political awareness but also the role of media in breaking the stereotyped image of women. Undoubtedly media has played a vital role in creating awareness among women and in empowering them up to some extent. Media helps women in identifying and adopting the ways of self-actualization. Women are also becoming active in the journalism profession previously they were seen rarely in journalism. It is also criticized to sensationalize the issues and use women as a commodity for seeking the attention of viewers. Women’s image is seen as submissive to men. Women’s issues rarely got space in the leading stories of front pages.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, we can come to the conclusion that in spite of facing obstacles women in India is coming in the forefront and started demanding their own rights in various fields and many political and apolitical women organizations are acting as their agent in upholding their demands. One of the key thing that acts as an obstacle for women’s political participation in India is the lack of education. Women will come to know about their rights and privileges when they will get the proper education. With the objective of gender empowerment Government of India in 2014 formed a commission named National Mission of Empowerment of Women, but this project was not up to the mark.

Side by side governmental help is for the uprising of women empowerment. As discussed earlier there are my constitutional provisions which provide equality between men and women. Recently in Kerala, the Sabarimala case is an example of governmental help that provided to the women. For many decades women were not allowed to enter into the Sabarimala temple but the LDF government protested against this and provide the equal right to women as like men to enter into the temple.

Media has to some extent plays an important for women empowerment and truly highlighting their status in society. Establishment of women panchayat and 33% reservation of women into the local bodies is acting as an encouragement to women for taking part in politics and in the decision making process.                  

Reference

Alam Shah, January 2015, International journal of advanced in management and social sciences, Volume 4, no.1, page 78.

Nisha M.Ameen, Vezhaventhan. D,2018, International journal of pure and applied mathematics, volume 120 no. 5, page no. 4726.

Nisha M Ameen, Vezhaventhan.D 2018, International journal of pure and applied mathematics, volume 120 no. 5, page no.4728.

Kumar Amit, Dhamiya Somesh, Dhamiya Arun, December 2016, SIBM Pune research journal, volume XII, Page no. 6,

Alam Shah, January 2015, International journal of advanced research in management and social sciences, Volume 4 no.1, Page no. 81-82.

Nisha M.Ameen, Vezhaventhan.D, 2018, International journal of pure and applied mathematics, volume 120 no.5, page no. 4721.

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  “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own”

This is 2020 and a 12-year-old Meera peeps outside her window for hours day after another. She sat through the morning sun and waited for the moon to set in and oh! She sighed as the autumn leaves fell on her window as she flipped through the pages of a book of Bengali poems, yesterday it was ‘Abhilash’ by Rabindranath Tagore and today it was ‘The fruit of the tree of knowledge’ by Kamini Roy. She wrote, “ The Male desire to rule is the primary, if not the only, stumbling block to women’s enlightenment. They are extremely suspicious of women’s emancipation. Why? The same old fear- the lest they become like us”

Meera thought to herself, what is enlightenment?

Women of Yesterday 

Enlightenment in 16^th-century Europe was one of many outcomes of 30 years war from 1618 to 1648, as a result, many authors like Hugo and John Comenius went ahead against tradition to question some of the most rational questions of time. However, there’s not much reference to the role of women in the period of enlightenment. The status of women during the period of enlightenment is highly debated in academia and many of their works remain rather unpublished to date, which makes it difficult to understand 16^th century Europe from the eyes of a woman. Enlightenment brought with itself ideals of tolerance, liberty and progress, but these ideals remained rather secluded to middle and upper-class women who were able to discuss issues like politics, equality and sexuality in salons, coffee houses and debating societies. Among enlightened philosophers was John Locke who believed that the notion of male superiority was created by men and on the contrary Rousseau believed that women were subordinate to men and women must obey men. It is surprising to note such contrasting belief systems, that also highlight the fact that maybe, we’ve come far from where we were centuries ago but often we see more of Rousseau than Locke even in 21^st century. 

Tracing The Legacy Of Women Issues In Mid-19th Century India

Modern Europe saw the rise of some of the most renowned feminists, however, we see flashes of feminism in India primarily beginning from the mid-19^th century, this was the time of reform movement centred around Indian freedom struggle when social reformers like Savitribai Phule, Kamini Roy, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Behramji Malabari among others talked of issues surrounding rights of women and social injustice. There was much hue and cry over the abolition of Sati but reformers like Ram Mohan Roy held their ground and even went ahead and said that “Sati was murder according to every shastra”.Issues like age of consent were debated in middle and upper-middle-class quarters, but such regulations did not reach the masses, it is astonishing to know that the practice of child marriage and crime against minor girls and children are on a rise even after over a hundred years of increasing the age of consent. Where did we go wrong? Before we try and analyse the answer let us look at some revolutionary women who changed the course of history for all women.

Mary Wollstonecraft 

Late 18^th century saw the first feminist philosopher in history, Mary Wollstonecraft, she was among the first women to openly publish under her name, she is widely known for the book, A vindication of the rights of women, it was a philosophical text for the education of women. She famously said “I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves” what she meant by this was that seeking the rights for women does not in any regard mean taking away rights of men, the essential purpose of all rights of women is not to control men, rather have the right over herself, her soul, her being, the very right that women over the world are still fighting for. For years altogether she wrote about how systematic patriarchy blinds women in the garb of obedience and how important it is for a woman to be strengthening their minds to become rational human beings. 

Kamini Roy 

Kamini Roy was born at a time when national freedom struggle was gaining ground but there was rather a lack of women participation in public life, born in a small village in present-day Bangladesh, Roy spearheaded the suffragette movement in India, after a long struggle, the Bengal legislative granted limited suffragette to women in 1925, she was among the first girls to attend school in British India. As a young woman she enjoyed writing and poetry, she quotes  “why should a woman be confined to the home and denied her rightful place in society?”  This was a revolutionary message for the time as it portrayed the zeal within young women who actively wished to participate in public life, who wanted nothing less than emancipation. 

20th-Century Position Of Women

20^th century was a period of decolonisation and formation of national boundaries. Ideas of sovereignty, republic, democracy were gaining ground, but rights of women remained at the periphery of nation-building. Hence, it is not surprising to know that most countries over the world, more or less, have ensured political rights but despite that remain the second gender, in the light of growing crimes against women it is natural to remember words said by Dr Ambedkar, he said “ political rights mean nothing in the absence of socio-economic rights” perhaps what he meant this was that political rights will only take an individual so far but real emancipation comes from social and economic rights. The example of this can very well be understood in the context of India. Even after over 70 years of independence women membership in the lower house remains at 12%, whereas Rwanda, a small country in Africa has 62% of women representatives. We will now look at how Rwanda achieved these feet.  

Women of Impact – Rwanda 

It is imperative to ignore how a small country like Rwanda can increase its women participation in a world where three nations; Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu have no women in their central legislation. A country like the U.S; the world biggest superpower has just 23% representation of women in the lower house. Whereas countries where there have been improvements in numbers of female legislators, they have had a long history of women’s inclusion in public life. One of the reasons for the high number of women legislators is rooted in the re-constitution of the Rwandan constitution post-genocide in 2003. The new constitution allowed leaders to include progressive measures like gender equality, mandating a minimum 30% quota for women in parliament. It is now documented that countries where there is a significant reservation of seats for women in parliament, there has been a jump in numbers, Nepal has 33% quota whereas Djibouti has over 15% women parliamentarians. Another reason for a growing women representation lies in the fact that Rwanda has a proportional electoral system where a percentage of government seats held by a party is roughly equal to the percentage of voters who support the party. Women’s caucus in Rwanda developed a strategy to increase participation of women, they had veteran lawmakers run for open seats whereas reserved seats were ushered by newcomers. The passing of the anti-violence legislation is among one of their biggest achievements. 

Status of Women in the 21^st Century 

Women form almost 50% of the world population, any significant growth cannot be realised without the participation of women as a global citizen but before we focus on that, the world needs to give the status of a human being to a woman. The moment women are considered human beings and not just a commodity, probably half the race will be won. The other has to be won by working on multiple levels, ranging from strong legislation for crimes towards women to gender sensitisation in primary, secondary and high schools. The concept of consent is gaining ground and ever more important, especially in a world where most crimes against women are committed by a known entity. This only strengthens the notion that sensitisation at school might be the first step in the right direction but there has to be ensured gender sensitisation of parents right after the birth of a child. State and non-state actors, media, celebrities across the world and people like us who are part of society must do our bit in ensuring that women are given their due status in society not because they are women but rather because they are human beings. 

What Will The Woman Of Tomorrow Want?

For every 1000 baby boys, we have 940 girls. For starters, women of tomorrow must want to bridge this ratio. Women of tomorrow will want to not only be born and be granted the rights that already exist for them but also occupy more and more public spaces, women of tomorrow will want to be writers, a politician, scientist, musician, painter, journalist, a homemaker, teacher, work in an MNC but all by her choice, and not by compulsion. She will want to occupy not just public space but also live a life without the fear of harassment, she will want to take a sanitary napkin to the washroom without the fear of a male guardian knowing that she is on her period. Women of tomorrow will always be like the woman of today and yesterday, their demands might change over time but at the heart of it, she just wants to live a life of dignity, she only wishes to a life she chose for herself. 

As for Meera, let’s just hope she gains the true meaning of enlightenment in a few years, and let us make sure it remains only a few. 

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