India|June'2009: 61 female members have been elected to the 15th Lok Sabha this year, which is the highest number of women MPs ever elected since independence. More than 8 % of the women candidates have come out triumphant as opposed to 6.5% winning percentage for the men who contested the LS elections. *This simply means that 1 in every 12 women candidates won the elections, whereas only 1 out of more than 15 men managed to win in the elections to the 543 Lok Sabha seats.But, despite women enjoying a better winning probability in the just-concluded polls, there will be only 46 of them in the new Lok Sabha, as compared to 497 men.(*Source: PTI)

Although it is a welcome change to see more women walking into the Parliament, women’s organisations feel that there is still a big gap between the number of women and men MPs in the Parliament. There is every possibility that the increase in the number of women may still not ensure their equal say in the political decision making.

“The women of India have shown time and again that they can take up leadership roles and win elections. However, our political parties have always found it difficult to field sufficient number of women candidates. Most of the elected women are very well connected politically and acquire the skills from their family members. This needs to change now…we have to make space for those other women who want to serve the people, irrespective of their political/social background. It is imperative to train and empower them at the grassroots and enable them to not only contest, but also win the elections,” says Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research (CSR) & President, WomenPowerConnect (WPC).

In the recent LS elections, out of the 443 candidates declared by the Congress, the party pitched only 40 women candidates (less than 10%). Opposition BJP was no better with the party fielding only 43 women candidates out of the total 427 seats. Left parties, the self claimed flag-bearer of the cause of women reservation, had the worst record of women representation in their list of candidates with the left parties not even giving 5% of the tickets to women candidates for the 15th Lok Sabha elections. While, the CPM only fielded 4 women candidates out of the 80 declared seats, the CPI gave only 3 women candidates out of the 45 seats it was contesting. While Samajwadi Party fielded a mere 6 candidates out of its 75 candidates in UP, Lalu Yadav-led RJD gave a mere 2 seats to women in its quota of 28 seats in Bihar.(Source: www.indian-elections.com )

“Women have to become the centre stage of the new politics to eradicate the existing gender inequalities ailing our country. We at CSR, realise the need to build the capacity of women to fight elections and are therefore implementing the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) Project in India which aims at addressing the gender gap as well as the challenges faced by women in Indian political processes and institutions. CSR is training as many as 1000 women by implementing the core strategy of “Train, Contest & Win” across the country, “adds Dr. Kumari.

Participant women have been identified from entire India, with proportional regional representation. Women in leadership roles e.g. women from academics, NGOs, media, trade unions etc have been selected. Special emphasis is being given to women in panchayati raj and aspiring members of political parties at various levels (National and Regional parties). Training for leadership building amongst the women belonging to Scheduled caste/Scheduled tribe and backward classes will also be undertaken. 30 training workshops have been lined up across different parts of the country, out of which 2 have already been conducted in Tirupati & Vardha.

At the end of the project, capacities of women across India will be enhanced to contest elections. Political parties will be made aware about this pool of trained women. Key political parties shall be encouraged to ensure voluntary quotas within parties to ensure gender balance. They will also be sensitized and lobbied with to ensure a smooth passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Why have more women in politics:
If we look at India, the gender stats of the World Bank in 2002 reflect that Indian female life expectancy, female labour force, primary school enrolment, female population is much lower than world and developing countries levels. Female enrolment in primary school in India was 75.7% which is much lower than world’s 85.2% and developing countries (83.7%). Female labour force in India was 32.5%, world’s 40.8 and developing countries 40.3. Percentage of female population in India was 48.4, world’s 49.7% and developing countries 49.5%. Indian female life expectancy at birth was 64.2% much lower than world’s 68.8% and developing countries66.4%.
 

The rise in literacy rates over the last decade indicates India's progress in education. From 1991- 99, the overall literacy rate increased from 52 percent to 64 percent. Yet more than half of Indian women are still illiterate; about 40 million primary school-age children are not in school (mostly girls and those from the poorest and socially-excluded households); and only about one-third of an age group completes the constitutionally prescribed eight years of education.

As many as 60 % of the rural women are anaemic and more women than men die before the age of 35. Maternal deaths in India account for almost 25 percent of the world's childbirth-related deaths. According to the National Family Health Survey – 2, 1998/99, only 52% of women in Indian had a decision-making role in their health care. Suicide is the second largest cause of death in Indian women after tuberculosis.

The above mentioned discrepancies can only be addressed if there are more women in decision making. The initiative of reserving seats for women in the local bodies materialized through the Panchayati Raj Act, 1992 during the then Prime Minister of India, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure. Using the 33% reservation of seats in bodies of local governance, women have become active and valuable participants in grassroot level decision making structures. Women are very hopeful that if such a strategy were to be employed across all levels, higher level decision making would also benefit from the dynamic involvement and leadership of women.

Reachout's News Bureau
 June' 2009