DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY

VISAKHAPATNAM

PROJECT ON

WOMEN IN POLITICS

BY

PRASHANT DIXIT

Roll.no. 2019 B.A L.L.B 110

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have tried to attempt this project. However, it would not have been possible without the
valuable support and guidance of Nirmala ma’am, Iwould like to extend my sincere thanks to
her. I am also highly indebted to Damodarm Sanjivayya National Law University Library
staff, for their patient co-operation as well as for providing necessary information & also for
their support in completing this project.

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 Table of contents

1. Objectives of the study---------------------------------- 4

2. Significance of the study-------------------------4
3. Research methodology ---------------------------4
4. Scope of the study -------------------------------------4-5
5. Hypothesis ----------------------------------------------5
6. Introduction -------------------------------------------5
7. Rise of feminism-------------------------------------------11
8. Critical analysis-----------------------------------------13
9. Conclusion--------------------------------------------24
10. Bibliography------------------------------------------24

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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The objectives of the study are as follows:-

1. To find out role Women in Politics

2. To find out possibility of women representation in politics
3. To find out women’s achievement in politics

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study will help us:-

To know about condition of women in politics and it’s effect on society.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research is of doctrinal and both primary and secondary sources are taken into
consideration while making it like; websites, books and other internet sources. The type of
study done here is descriptive, analytical, historical and critical study. This research process
deals with collecting & analysing information within the boundaries of the topic.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Whether there is need of women in politics

2. Whether women’s representation possible in politics
3. Whether it is helpful for society?
4. Whether it is effective?

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

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The study is restricted to the condition of women in politics. The study also exclusively
focuses on ways, merits and demerits of women’s representation in politics . It also focuses
on need of women in politics .

Hypothesis

The researcher believes that women’s representation in politics will develop the society

INTRODUCTION

The worth of a civilization can be judged from the position that it gives to women.

Of the few factors that legitimize the enormity of India’s old culture, one of the best is the
respected spot attributed to ladies. Manu, the extraordinary law-provider, said some time in
the past, ‘where ladies are respected there live the divine beings’. As indicated by antiquated
Hindu sacred texts no strict custom can be performed with flawlessness by a man without the
cooperation of his better half. Spouse’s support is basic to any strict custom. Hitched men
alongside their spouses are permitted to perform sacrosanct customs on the event of different
significant celebrations. Spouses are along these lines befittingly called ‘Ardhangani’ (better
half).

In any case, the status that was given to ladies in past is not the same as that given at this
point. There has been a lot of development, coming about because of differed progressive
acts like, in the wake of Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s development against ladies’ oppression to
men and British impact on Indian culture and human progress the situation of ladies had by
and by experienced a change. In any case, it was distinctly under the illuminated authority of
Mahatma Gandhi that they re-declared their equity with men. In light of the call of Gandhi
they disposed of their cloak and left the four dividers of their homes to face the conflict of
opportunity side by side with their siblings. The outcome is that the Indian Constitution today

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has given to ladies the equivalent status with men. There is no segregation among people. All
callings are available to them two with merit as the main standard of choice.

Because of their recently picked up opportunity Indian lady have separated themselves in
different circles of life as legislators, speakers, legal ndeavour s, specialists, managers and
representatives.

They are depended with work of duty as well as they play out their obligations genuinely and
truly. There is not really any circle of life in which Indian ladies have not partaken and
demonstrated their value. Ladies practice their entitlement to cast a ballot, challenge for
Parliament and Assembly, look for arrangement in open office and contend in different
circles of existence with men. This shows ladies in India appreciate today more freedom and
fairness than previously. They have gained more freedom to take an interest in the
undertakings of the nation. They have been given balance with men in molding their future
and sharing obligations regarding themselves, their family and their nation.

There is no denying the way that ladies in India have gained a significant ground over the
most recent fifty years however yet they need to battle against numerous debilitations and
social indecencies in the male ruled society.

The Hindu Code Bill has given the little girl and the child equivalent portion of the property.
The Marriage Act never again sees lady as the property of man. Marriage is presently viewed
as an individual undertaking and if an accomplice feels disappointed she or he has the
privilege of separation. In any case, going of law is a certain something and its assimilation in
the aggregate considering society is a serious diverse issue. So as to substantiate themselves
equivalent to the pride and status given to them in the Indian Constitution they need to shake
off the shackles of subjection and superstitions. They should support the administration and
the general public in destroying the shades of malice of settlement, lack of education and

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numbness among the eves. The endowment issue has accepted a perilous structure in this
nation. The guardians of the young ladies need to pay thousands and lacs to the grooms and
their eager dads and moms. Whenever guaranteed articles are not given by the guardians of
ladies, the brutal and voracious individuals from the husbands’ family take plan of action to
besetting torments on the wedded ladies. A few ladies are killed in such cases. The settlement
passings are extremely grievous and primitive violations submitted by the coldblooded and
unfeeling people. The little youngsters ought to be intense enough in not wedding the young
men who request share through their folks. The young men ought to likewise decline to wed
if their folks request settlement. In any case, tragically the quantity of such striking and
upright young men is not many. Indeed, even the specialists, architects, educators and the
managerial officials don’t spare a moment in enabling themselves to be offered to the well off
fathers of modest and bashful young ladies. Such people have truly acquired ndeavour to
their frameworks specific and society when all is said in done. The administration ought to
authorize stringent laws to harass thorough discipline on settlement searchers, ladies’ killers
and rapers.

This undertaking intends to show what was the status of ladies in past, how the state of affairs
has advanced, giving uncommon accentuation to the ascent of women’s liberation, and how it
had profited ladies everywhere, censuring its negative perspectives too. It is an ndeavour to
realize sharpening about shifted creeds pervasive in the general public.

History

In antiquated India, however male centric framework was exceptionally pervasive (male
mastery) ladies delighted in a place of regard and love. A few engravings make references to
the status of ladies in that they delighted in the opportunity to make liberal blessings to strict
establishments like sanctuaries, dharmasalas not simply for the welfare of leaders of the
families yet for their folks too. Ladies held significant situation in old Indian culture.

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The plenty of Goddesses in antiquated period was made to ingrain regard for ladies.
Ardhanareshwar (God is half-man and half-lady) was profoundly revered. Ladies were
permitted to have numerous spouses. They could leave their spouses. In the Vedic culture
ladies partook in strict functions and ancestral congregations. There is no withdrawal of
ladies from residential and get-togethers yet they were subject to their male family members
for the duration of their lives. The arrangement of Sati existed among the Aryans in the
previous period. The songs of the Rig-Veda, the Atharva Veda show that it was as yet
standard for the widow to lay emblematically by the side of her significant other’s body on
the burial service, constrained youngster relationships were obscure.

Ladies could pick their spouses through a sort of marriage called Swayamvara. In this,
potential 40 grooms gathered at the lady of the hour’s home and the lady of the hour chose
her companion. Occurrences of Swayamvara function can be found in sagas, the Ramayana
and the Mahabharata. This proceeded even in the later period in high station families. The
craving for children has made an extreme deficiency of eligible young ladies. As their worth
ascents, deceitful men are exchanging them around the subcontinent and past as though they
were a negligible item.

It was for the most part during the nineteenth century that the change development attempted
by edified masterminds and pioneers of Indian culture like Raja Rammohan Roy who
comprehended the significance of ladies’ cooperation that the status of Indian ladies began
improving. In spite of the fact that at first every one of the pioneers were men, ladies step by
step came into the scene and assumed their job in changing history as well as the general
public in general, through their endeavors in various zones of work, for example, training,
governmental issues and opportunity development. Mrs. Annie Besant, Dr. Sarojini Naidu,
Kamladevi Chattopadhyay, Mrs. Nellie Sengupta, Durgabai Deshmukh and numerous others
gave a change and advancement. Indian ladies effectively took an interest in the opportunity
development to feature the significance of the height of the status of the Indian ladies which
likewise had various pushes

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Status quo evolved, did it?

In the Vedic time frame, ladies lost their political privileges of going to gatherings. In the
financial field, they had restricted privileges of property progression as spouses and moms. In
the social field, they are never free from customs. In the political field, they have been given
a tolerably low portrayal for the sake of reservation.

From the beginning of time and in numerous social orders including India, sex imbalance was
an integral part of an acknowledged male overwhelmed culture. Abominations and
segregation are the two significant issues, which the ladies face in the contemporary India.
The customary mindset accept that ladies are for the most part kept to the family unit
exercises like “kitchen and children”. They have been considered as the sex article and
mediocre compared to men in various circles of life.

The ‘Sati Pratha’, ‘Pardah System’, ‘Kid Marriage’, ‘Share System’, and so forth., have been
a few types of outrages and prejudicial frames of mind against ladies. Considerably following
six many years of Indian Independence, ladies are as yet one of the most feeble and
underestimated areas of Indian Society.

Pictures of ladies have not stayed static and have experienced various changes. However,
certain basic models have widespread acceptance:

 First at the societal plane, the perception of different categories of women is distinctly
shaped/conditioned by the popularly accepted female images/stereotypes.
 Secondly, at the interpersonal level within the family situation, these images frequently
impinge in a variety of ways. These gender dichotomies, flowing almost directly from the
popular images fostered most significantly, these images in most Indian families.

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 Thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, these images leave a deep imprint upon women’s
self-perception.
However, the modern day Indian woman is strong and bold; courageous enough to stand
up for her rights, but what has it changed? Nothing at all. They are still the ones that we
hold responsible for looking after the house, cooking, and most of the household chores.
After years of independence and struggle, women were considered a weaker section of
the society. They were being oppressed by their male counterparts. Their quest for
equality pursued consistently and this has resulted in changed conditions. With the
increasing demand and expectation of greater freedom, better education, self dependence,
decent jobs, proper treatment by men folk and socio-economic environment free from
exploitations, the urge for empowerment rose and feminism emerged.
Over the years, the demand for equality has been given consideration and the thirst for
equality is in the process of being quenched.
The society has evolved drastically. Women are now being viewed in a way they should
be. The status has been elevated from home-makers to society-makers. Where, earlier,
they were expected to stay in four walls of a house and manage the chores alone; today,
they are considered to an integral part in shaping the society as a whole. They are given
opportunities to walk with men and prove their abilities in varied fields.
Many changes have taken place with respect to social life of Indian women. The ‘new
life’ in city has altered the family relations. Social life of women has been altered because
the husband and wife have begun to share a common social life which was not found in
traditional family.
Attitude towards -segregation of sexes has also been changing. Coeducation has created
an opportunity for intermixing of boys and girls. During leisure the women visit their
friends’ house. Boys take girls out to entertain them by taking to movies, restaurants and
picnic.
Industrialisation has not only affected the joint family system, but also the relationship
between the husband and the wife. The position of a woman as consultant is found in
most families where she shares the responsibility of making the major family decisions
with her husband or father. Now authority vests not only on eldest male but also on
females.
The status of Indian women through the ages has been changing and the status, which was
lost during the middle ages and earlier parts of 19 th century, has been regained somewhat.
It appears that the status of women has gone high in India.

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 CHAPTER 2

Rise of feminism

Women’s liberation is an accumulation of developments planned for characterizing, building

up, and protecting equivalent political, financial, and social rights and equivalent open doors
for ladies. The conviction ladies are and ought to be treated as potential scholarly equivalents
and social equivalents to men. These individuals can be either male or female people, despite
the fact that the belief system is regularly (and maybe erroneously) related chiefly with
ladies.

The essential thought of Feminism rotates around the rule that since human bodies intended
to play out certain procreative capacities, organic components need not manage scholarly and
social capacities, abilities, and rights.

Women’s liberation additionally, by its temperament, grasps the conviction that all
individuals are qualified for opportunity and freedom sensibly speaking – including
equivalent social liberties – and that segregation ought not be made dependent on sex, sexual
direction, skin shading, ethnicity, religion, culture, or way of life.

Women’s activists – and all people keen on common balance and education – are committed
to battling the obliviousness that says individuals are constrained by and restricted to their
science. Ladies in India are not treated as similarly as men. They are lawfully or naturally
equivalent as male. Be that as it may, there is a social boundary which still separates among
people. For whatever length of time that the issues of ladies stay as ladies issues, and not as
social issues, the endeavors at the arrangement of these issues don’t get the quick speed.
Indian ladies are socially politically financially are equivalent to men. They need to change
their mentality and leave the shackles of social disasters. After that they get more noteworthy
opportunity, better, better training, confident, autonomous, steady employments better
treatment from men. It will possibly happen when they create fortitude, control among

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themselves and not engage any separation and speak more loudly against any segregation. It
will impact their societal position and the financial conditions in the days to come.

Present status

In the present day world, women empowerment has taken a forefront in all the spheres of life.

The term “empowerment of women” has become popular especially after 1980’s It refers to
the process of strengthening the hands of women who have been suffering from various
disabilities, inequalities and gender discrimination. As the time passed the position of women
underwent changes in all spheres of life. Be it education or employment, women are
encouraged to come forward and grab the opportunity so as to be independent as men. Even
men, today, have started helping women and encouraging them to lead a life as per their own
whims and desires. People today have become sensitive towards issues related to women

Varied laws have emerged so as to ensure women are granted their rights and also, all of it is
safeguarded in the interest of women.

During the modern times there was a little development in the women status. There were
many women reformers in India who worked for the uplift & betterment of their female
counterparts. Their education was elevated and English was introduced during this period.
Various female writers emerged in the society.

In the modern time, women in India were given freedom & right such as freedom of
expression & equality as well as the right to be educated. Various prestigious positions at this
period were held by women. They’re enjoying the ‘ladies first’ facility in different fields.
However, some problems such as dowry, domestic violence, sex selective abortion, female
infanticide are still prevalent. Sections of men still have orthodox, stereotypical thought
process of considering women’s dignity beneath that of a man.

However, with passage of time, these evils are taking a backseat and it seems that in coming
future, they’ll vanish from the society. At present, not only women, but men too are seeking
equality for women. The concept of feminism is no more left on the shoulders of women.
Men have now come forward for women.

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This has been possible owing to the education of people at large, gender sensitivity,
increasing modernisation and change in societal pattern.

CHAPTER 3

Critical Analysis

Throughout the years, the idea of woman's rights has moved from strengthening in lieu of
correspondence to pseudo-women's liberation, where the point has now moved to ensuring
that ladies rule men, for the sake of strengthening. This is well apparent in changed circles of
everyday exercises.

The interest for reservation by ladies features their pietism where on one hand, they request
unique status in shifted circles like metro mentors, training, work and so on., and on the
other, they need to be treated with correspondence.

Regular several men are deceived by demonstrations of ladies, yet they are never brought to
the notice, and when they will be, they are looked downward on by the general public, calling
men bumbling and not understanding their injury.

In the wake of woman's rights and ladies strengthening, laws, as well, have progressed
toward becoming ladies unconventional. Laws identified with inappropriate behavior,
settlement, oblige the complaints of ladies and kids alone. They neglect to investigate the
requirements and defenselessness of the other sex.

In any case, measurements show that 19% of men have confronted some sort of inappropriate
behavior at office. In Bangalore, 51% had been explicitly bothered, while in Delhi and
Hyderabad, 31% and 28% of those reviewed said they had been explicitly bugged. Around
38% of the respondents crosswise over 7 urban areas in India said that in the present working
environments, "men are as helpless against inappropriate behaviour as women. “The most

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compelling motivation why these cases were never revealed was "social disparagement" and
in light of the fact that they believed they wouldn't be accepted because of India's social
convictions. During 2009, 16% of all lewd behaviour cases were documented by men in the
US. As indicated by a 2006 government study in the United Kingdom, two out of five lewd
behaviour unfortunate casualties in the UK were male, with 8% percent of all inappropriate
behaviour objections to the Equal Opportunities Commission (Britain's EEOC), originating
from men.

Not just this, today, ladies have begun abusing the benefits given to them.

More than eight of ten (81%) who said that they realized somebody dishonestly blamed
addressed that the erroneously charged gathering was male. Almost seven of every ten (70%)
of those dishonestly denouncing were female. These outcomes show unequivocally that
deceitful allegations and their repercussions loom exceptionally huge in the scene of men's
lives. And keeping in mind that there are erroneously charged females out there, the issue is
one that can be genuinely distinguished as commonly a demonstration of hostility against
men.

Every one of these measurements and figures show that helplessness, injury, danger; these
are not relating to one sex alone. It is a typical issue, it is the issue which should be
understood and the arrangement doesn't stop by giving advantages to a solitary sex.
Arrangements ought to never be sexual orientation driven.

One needs to understand that the motivation behind presenting women's liberation and taking
a stab at accomplishing ladies rights was to guarantee correspondence and not a matriarchal
society, ousting male centric culture. The general public works as indicated by the conduct of
both the genders and not a solitary one.

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Where on one hand men are relied upon to regard ladies and give them equivalent status,
ladies as well, are required to comprehend that they ought not exploit what has been given to
them. Rather than hailing around looking for strengthening, ladies ought to substantiate
themselves without requesting any kind of "benefits" or "uncommon status". They, as well,
should regard the other sexual orientation's respect and not be ungracious towards them.

When individuals start having this mentality, at that point just the general public can really
push forward in an effectual way.

A touchy mentality is something that is undeniably more significant than ladies

strengthening, affectability towards "Human Empowerment". People ought to be equivalent
in having rights to exceed expectations and thrive, the two of them merit great quality
instruction, and the two of them have the right to be business visionaries the two of them
have the right to have their job in the public eye. The two of them merit shielding their
entitlement to live!

Across AFRICA, EUROPE, AND LATIN America, a number of women have in recent times
been elected heads of government. More than four decades ago, India's Indira Gandhi was
only the third woman in the world to lead a democratic country. Several decades earlier, tens
of thousands of Indian women had participated in the movement for independence from
imperial rule, many of them going to prison for the cause of freedom. But in the years
following India's independence, it was mainly elite women who were visible in public life.
Even today, there are at least three women leading major national political parties. But, for
the vast majority of women, the triple burdens of gender, class, caste, and religion, overlaid
with the power of patriarchy, make the constitutional promise of gender equality seem more
symbolic than substantive. The Global Gender Gap Report 2007-a composite index of
economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and
survival-ranks India 114th out of 128 countries.' A year earlier, India's ranking on this index
was 98th out of 115 countries; even counting only those countries, India's position in 2007
slipped 4 places to 102. This composite ranking places India below its South Asian neighbors
Sri Lanka (at 15th place) and even Bangladesh (at 100th), higher only than Nepal and
Pakistan. The disaggregated scores in this index are significant. On three of the sub-indexes,

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India's ranking is even lower than its ranking of 114th on the composite index. On economic
participation and opportunity for women, for example, Indias ranking is 122th; on
educational attainment, it is 116th; and on health and survival, it is positively abysmal-126th-
with only two countries, Azerbaijan and Armenia, below it. But contrast these with India's
ranking on the political empowerment of women: 21st out of 128 countries, higher even than
Australia, Canada, and the United States. Granted, India has had its share of female heads of
state, and it could be argued that the index gives too much consideration to countries with
female leadership, since the presence and even the longevity of elite female leadership is no
proof of women's political participation being either widespread or robust. Even so, it is the
case that there is a wide and puzzling gap between the political the participation of Indian
women on, the one hand, and their human development indicators-that is, the social and
economic opportunities available to them-on the other. It is this gap that this essay seeks to
address.

Despite the emergence of India as a major economic player on the world stage, its poor
record of human development reflects the persistence of poverty and inequality. These
inequalities are accentuated in the case of disadvantaged social groups (caste and tribal), and
especially in the situation of women who belong to such groups. The essay provides some
data to illustrate these inequalities before proceeding to a discussion of state interventions and
the political participation of women.

INEQUALITY, SOCIAL EXCLUSION, AND GENDER

India's ranks 128th out of 177 countries on the United Nations Development Program Human
Development Index for 2007. This presents a stark and curious contrast to the reality of
India's record of surging economic growth, reminding us of the unequal distribution of
prosperity in a country that is being seen as an emerging economic powerhouse. Forbes
magazine's list of the world's billionaires includes 36 Indians, three of whom are in the top 20
(though none of them are female). In addition, companies owned by Indians-some of which
are incorporated in India-have bought large European corporations like Arcelor and Corus.
For some years now, the Indian economy has maintained an impressively steady 9 percent
annual growth rate. Its economic success and projected potential have also attracted a
substantial amount of foreign direct investment.

Notwithstanding this extraordinary economic success story, approximately 26 percent of

India's population subsists below a rather sparely defined poverty line. It is hardly surprising

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that such poverty statistics should translate into poor human development indicators, which in
turn manifest a gender gap. Correlating the data on human development by social group, we
find that there is an overlap between poverty and low human development on the one hand,
and social exclusion on the other. The poorest sections of India's population belong
disproportionately to the most marginalized social groups, especially the scheduled castes
(dalits), the scheduled tribes (adivasis), and the Muslim minority. Given that these three
groups constitute 38 percent of India's population, the overlap is both obvious and disturbing.
It is certainly not the case that all members of these groups are poor or that there is no
poverty among other social groups, but there is a higher likelihood of someone who is poor
belonging to these groups. Furthermore, the position of women in these social groups is
worse than men.

There can scarcely be a less ambiguous predictor of gender discrimination than the sex ratio.
The sex ratio expresses the preference for sons in South Asian societies, in which the
historical practice of female infanticide has, in contemporary times, been replaced by that of
female feticide, or sex-selective abortions. It is not surprising that the Global Gender Gap
Report 2007 attributes the lowering of India's overall ranking (as compared to the previous
year) to the sex ratio. India's 2001 census documented a sex ratio of 933 females per 1000
males, which is marginally better than the ratio of 927 females per 1000 males of the 1991
census, but much lower than the ratios in European and North American countries.

Maternal mortality in India is estimated at 301 per 100,000 live births, which puts the
average risk of a woman dying each time she becomes pregnant at roughly 1 in 330. This in
turn means that if a woman gets pregnant three times in her life, the average chance of her
dying is just under 1 in 100.' Not surprisingly, higher rates of maternal mortality are more
characteristic of rural and lower-caste women than of urban and higher-caste women. This
points to the poor access women--especially rural and lower-caste women-have to healthcare
services, especially antenatal, natal, and postnatal medical facilities.

A rich amount of data on women ranging from fertility and age of marriage to spousal
violence and healthcare became available very recently, in September of 2007, following a
29-state National Family Health Survey conducted in 2005 and 2006. The National Family
Health Survey (referred to as NFHS-3) reports on issues related to family health and is
therefore substantially about women and children. However, the survey does also make
comparisons with men-as in the case of anemia or literacy, education, and employment.

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When addressing topics such as fertility and neonatal and postnatal care, however, the survey
is chiefly about women. NFHS-3 shows a reassuring decline in the rates of fertility, birth, and
infant mortality. However, anemia, wasting, and malnutrition continue to rise among both
female children and adult women. Between the last such survey (NFHS-2, 1998-1999) and
the present one, anemia in married women has gone up from 52 to 56 percent, and in
pregnant women from 50 to 58 percent. Anemia in men, by contrast, is currently 24 percent.
Gender inequalities are also reflected in access to education and employment. The enrollment
of girls in school is lower than that of boys, and half of those who enrol drop out by middle
school. Thus, 41 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49---compared to 18 percent
of men in the same age group-have never been to school. Girls are kept home to help with
housework or to look after younger siblings. They are also married off at a fairly young age--
46 percent of women in the 18 to 29 age group who were surveyed had been married before
the legal age of 18, and the median age for first birth among them is 19.3 years. The NFHS-3
survey also documented spousal physical or sexual violence and abuse in the case of 37
percent of married women. Of the women surveyed, 54 percent of the women thought abuse
was justified.

The survey found that 43 percent of currently married women were employed, as opposed to
99 percent of married men. Of these women, 25 percent received no payment for their work,
while 12 percent were paid in kind. Among married women who work and are paid in cash,
14 percent decided alone how their earnings would be spent, while 57 percent decided with
their husbands; one in six had no say in how their earnings were spent. The survey also asked
who in the household usually made the decisions relating to major household purchases,
purchases for daily household needs, visiting the wife's family or relatives, and how many
children to have. Only 37 percent of married women said they participated in making
decisions in all four areas; 43 percent participated in some of these decisions; and 21 percent
did not participate in any of these decisions.

Among disadvantaged social groups-such as the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes-
women are both more disadvantaged than men of the same groups and more disadvantaged
than women in the general population. The differential in wages, work participation rates,
literacy and education, health, and mortality is considerable. Levels of educational
deprivation are highest among rural women of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and
lowest among urban males who do not belong to these social groups. Only a quarter of
women belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are literate, as compared to

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approximately half of women in other social groups. Similarly, the data for schooling of
children between the ages of 7 and 16 shows that the mean years of schooling for Muslim
girls-whether rural or urban-are fewer even than those for girls belonging to the scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes. While rural Muslim girls in this age group obtain 2.62 mean
years of schooling, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe girls get an average of 2.75 years of
schooling.

The fertility rates among Muslim women, as well as women belonging to the scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes, are also higher than the average. Thus, while the average fertility
for women as a whole is 2.7 children in a lifetime, the average for women belonging to these
three groups is 3.1 for scheduled tribes, 2.9 for scheduled castes, and 3.1 for Muslims.
Likewise, anemia is especially high in women without any education and those belonging to
the scheduled tribes.

Neither these poor human development indicators for women nor the very real gender gap
can be attributed exclusively to policy neglect or an absence of legal interventions. Beginning
with the constitutional guarantee of gender equality, there are many laws and policies that
have sought to further the objective of bringing about greater equality in the patriarchal
Indian society. There is a range of what could be broadly described as punitive laws-laws that
prescribe severe punishment for rape, dowry demands, domestic violence, and female
feticide. There are also enabling laws such as the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment
Acts (1992) that provide for a one-third reservation for women in the elected institutions of
local governance, both rural and urban. Why, despite this panoply of punitive as well as
enabling laws, does gender inequality persist on this scale?

GENDER EQUALITY, LAW,AND GENDER JUSTICE

The following are three examples of laws enacted for gender justice and gender equality.

Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques and Sex-Selective Abortions The first example is the
punitive law against prenatal diagnostic techniques used for sex-selective abortion. It is an
unfortunate and well-known fact that son preference in Indian society has encouraged female
infanticide for hundreds of years. In recent years, the availability of sophisticated
technologies of sex-determination has made possible sexselective abortion, or female feticide.
The prenatal diagnosis law was intended to combat this practice. In 1997, a United Nations
Population Fund report estimated that India's "missing women" numbered between 32 and 48

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million. 5 In the northern states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, there are not even 900
females for every. 1000 males, while in the southern state of Kerala there are 1058-here,
females far exceed the male population. It is, moreover, significant that we find among
Christian and Buddhist tribal communities, in which there is no marked son-preference, a
lower deficit of women in rural areas.

Given that the states of Punjab and Haryana are economically prosperous, it is likely that
literacy, education, and the status of women in society are more significant determinants of
the practice of female feticide than economic prosperity. This is borne out by a recent study
of the state of Maharashtra in western India, which established a correlation between the
higher availability of clinics providing ultrasound sonography and a lower sex ratio. The
study showed that close to 80 percent of these clinics are located in the five richest districts of
the state, where the ratio of females to males is also the lowest.'

In 1971, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act legalized abortion to safeguard
the health of pregnant women. It was only some years later that the introduction of
amniocentesis-to detect fetal abnormalities-also made possible sex determination.
Amniocentesis soon came to be used primarily as a sex pre-selection test; more and more
private clinics began to provide the test, resulting in widespread misuse of the MTP Act. It
was to check this rampant abuse that the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics
Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act was enacted in 1994, and
subsequently amended in 2003. The law banned sex-determination tests and provided for
punishment of up to three years imprisonment and a small monetary fine for offenders. The
ban is believed to have driven the tests underground, making them more expensive rather
than less common. In December 2007, a BBC Asian Network hidden-camera investigation of
a New Delhi gynecologist with a strong professional reputation demonstrated this pattern.

In Punjab, a recent attempt to enforce the law by a police crackdown on clinics offering sex-
determination tests has resulted in a sudden increase in the number of girl children being
either killed or abandoned in garbage dumps and fields. This has provoked the Shiromani
Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (the apex body that administers Sikh shrines) to put cradles
outside the Sikh temples to encourage the parents of unwanted female infants to leave them
there instead of killing them." The continuing practice of female feticide-in economically
prosperous regions more than in backward ones, in urban areas more than rural, and even

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among the Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom-is testimony to the resilience of patriarchal
ideology and culture.

The preference for sons, even among women, is reflected in the NFHS-3 data. The average
ideal family size of children reported by women consists of 1.1 sons, 0.9 daughters, and 0.4
children of either sex. Despite this, there is a decline in the average ideal family size reported
by women from the previous such survey, and even some heartening evidence that the
women's internalization of these patriarchal values may be on the wane. The recent NFHS
data show that the percentage of women with two daughters and no sons who do not want
any additional children increased from 47 percent in the NFHS-2 to 61 percent in NFHS-3.

Guaranteed Political Representation for Women

The second example of legal provisions for gender equality is of an enabling law providing
for guaranteed political representation for women. Fifteen years ago, in December 1992, a
quite revolutionary constitutional amendment was enacted by India's parliament that
mandated the creation of institutions of rural local governance (three tiers at the sub-state
level), with regularly-elected representatives. The amendment also provided for one-third
guaranteed representation for women at every level of these institutions, or panchayats,
including in the post of chairperson at each level. In terms of sheer numbers, this has yielded
breath taking results, as approximately 1.2 million women have entered the panchayats. At
the higher levels of the political system, India has had no dearth of strong women leaders. Its
current president is a woman. The president of the ruling Congress Party is also a woman.
Today, three of the Indian federations 28 states have women chief ministers, and in the last
decade there have been times when there were more. Historically, the participation of women
in public life has been strong, as the mass struggle for independence from British colonial
rule brought large numbers of women into the movement. India had a woman prime minister,
Indira Gandhi, for approximately a quarter of its 60-year history. However, as in other South
Asian countries, successful women political leaders have often been linked by blood or
marriage to powerful male politicians: Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Kumaratunga
in Sri Lanka, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh, Indira and Sonia Gandhi in
India, and Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. In India, the acceptability of women for the top
political jobs has not translated into large numbers of women legislators, whether in the
federal parliament or in the state legislatures. In the directly elected lower house of the
current parliament, women make up 8.28 percent of the members, though the average from

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1950 to the present has varied between 6 and 7 percent. A bill providing for one-third
representation for women in parliament and the state legislatures has been pending in
parliament for the past 11 years. Despite the fact that there is complete agreement on this bill
among women members, its enactment has been repeatedly obstructed by openly sexist
comments in parliamentary debate and even minor, violence-as when a copy of the bill was
have been widespread. torn by an enraged male member of parliament before the speaker's
chair.

The quota for women in institutions of local governance acquires greater significance within
this context. Early studies of their performance reported tokenism and surrogate or proxy
representation (by fathers, husbands, brothers, etc.) on a massive scale. The practices of men
contesting elections in the name of their wives, attending meetings on their behalf, and even
signing official papers. Over time, however, it has come to be recognized that there are many
exceptions. Many women have gradually grown into their role as elected representatives,
recognizing that they should do not what their husbands or fathers-in-law want them to do,
but what their constituents expect them to do.

There have been many other obstacles, too. Women representatives have often been unseated
by manipulated motions of no confidence; others have been threatened, intimidated, or
simply marginalized. Meetings are called without even informing the woman heading the
panchayat and decisions are taken and sent to her home for her official endorsement. These
problems have been particularly acute in the case of dalit and tribal women. In a famous case,
a dalit woman head of a village panchayat in Madhya Pradesh went to court because she was
restrained from hoisting the national flag on Independence Day, a task that was rightfully
hers and an honor that she valued. She won the case in court, and returned the following year
to perform her role.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, the developmental achievements of the womenheaded

panchayats and those in which women members are more active have been impressive. They
include schemes for drinking water, playgrounds, and schools. Indeed, a gender distinction
has often been observed between the types of development works prioritized by women and
men. Thus, if male leaders tend to give importance to the building of roads, electricity, and
other infrastructure, women are found to be more attentive to primary education and health,
as well as the conservation and sustainable use of common property resources like forests and
ponds. Even before the constitutional amendment, all-women panchayats in Maharashtra had,

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in a departure from traditional politics, adopted need-oriented, ecologically sustainable
programs. They addressed issues of water scarcity, added extra schoolrooms, built
community toilets, and organized smokeless stoves for cooking. More recently, the all-
women panchayat of Kultikri in West Bengal pioneered a literacy campaign in the district,
brought about a considerable improvement in the primary health infrastructure, raised money
by leasing common property village ponds for pisciculture, and improved livelihoods by
establishing training-cum-production centers for women. These are considerable
developmental achievements.

However, whether women are empowered by their participation in local governance is less
easy to establish or document. Many women entering panchayats have given up the veil
orpurdah. There is some evidence that relationships within the family, including the division
of labor within the household, are being renegotiated. Women find that their opinions receive
greater respect not only within the household, but also outside of it. For instance, their
influence on decisions regarding when the children should marry has now increased.

Perhaps most significantly, the importance of being able to read agenda papers or minutes of
meetings has forced women to recognize that illiteracy is a major handicap, and this in turn
has led to a greater awareness of the importance of girls' education and higher levels of
aspirations for girls. The same women who needed to be virtually coerced to contest elections
are today eager to attend panchayat meetings themselves, and to participate in processes of
decision making.

Thus, many women representatives now say that they would like to contest elections again,
some saying that they would like to contest for positions of a higher level than the ones they
currently hold. Such aspirations are even more manifest in the case of dalit and tribal women,
surely a positive sign of empowerment. There are, in fact, instances of women having served
a term on a reserved seat and then having returned to office through open competition in the
election. In the community, women's in volvement in panchayat work is perceived as
reducing corruption and favoritism encouraging a greater awareness of education, and even
creating a greater recognition of women's rights. Many women representatives perceive a
change in the attitude of people (men and women) belonging to their own as well as other
castes. Backward caste women, for example, see as an indicator of their new status the
number of invitations they now receive to weddings, especially from upper-caste families. Of
course, none of these should encourage us to romanticize the change, for dalit women hardly

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ever report a significant shift in the behavior of higher-caste people towards them. They are
often satisfied with small gains, as when upper-caste people no longer expect them to sit on
the floor, but instead offer a seat at the same level as themselves. Nevertheless, a new sense
of self-confidence is perceptible.

CONCLUSION

Of the few factors that legitimize the enormity of India’s old culture, one of the best is the
respected spot attributed to ladies. Manu, the extraordinary law-provider, said some time in
the past, ‘where ladies are respected there live the divine beings’. As indicated by antiquated
Hindu sacred texts no strict custom can be performed with flawlessness by a man without the
cooperation of his better half. Spouse’s support is basic to any strict custom. Hitched men
alongside their spouses are permitted to perform sacrosanct customs on the event of different
significant celebrations. Spouses are along these lines befittingly called ‘Ardhangani’ (better
half).

As conclusion we can say that womens representation in politics is necessary for

development of society

Bibliography

 http://www.youthkiawaaz.com
 http://www.bu.edu
 http://www.isca.in
 http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

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 http://www.countercurrents.org
 http://nhesham.blogspot.in
 http://www.countercurrents.org/
 http://www.womenempowermentinindia.com/
 Shnkar Rao, C.N: Sociology( Karnataka :S.chand, 2014)
 Vir, Dharam :Kinship Family and Marriage: Changing Perspectives( Delhi: New
Academic Publishers, 2006)
 Indian Society, Class XII( Delhi: NCERT, 2014)

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