India: Women in governance- ‘Men need to understand the value of partnership’
By Rajender Singh Negi

May 6, 2008 – (OneWorld South Asia) On April 30, hundreds of women representing various organisations gathered at Parliament Street in the Indian capital New Delhi under the umbrella of ‘The Alliance for Women’s Reservation Bill’.

The Alliance was demanding the tabling of Women’s Reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament. They reminded the United Progressive Alliance government of its promise made in National Common Minimum Programme for providing 33% reservation for women in state assemblies and national parliament. A memorandum on the same was submitted to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later.

The memorandum, a one pager, using expressions like ‘betrayal’ three times and the phrase ‘conspiracy of consensus’ once, was reflective of the frustration or exasperation setting in among campaigners due to the inordinate delay faced so far by this bill.
Among the organisations that participated in the “demand meeting” were Young Women Christian Association, All India Women’s Conference, National Confederation of Dalit Organisations, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, Centre for Social Research and others.

Meanwhile, the union cabinet has decided to table the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha today (May 6). After its introduction, the bill will be referred to Standing Committee before which political parties can raise their objections.

Earlier Dr Ranjana Kumari, Director, Center for Social Research, spoke to OneWorld South Asia on the whole gamut of issues concerning the need for women in governance. Following are the excerpts of the interview:

OWSA: Do you think Indian society at large, its governments, judiciary, bureaucracy and the industry remain gender insensitive as ever? Or do you feel there is a change in attitude?

Ranjana Kumari: By and large they all remain fervently gender insensitive. Still you cannot say that all of them are equally gender insensitive. For instance, the mindset in judiciary is very insensitive. Look at the cases of atrocities against women that are filed in courts. How many of them get justice? The number is abysmally low and there is also a big question mark on the kind of justice they are delivering.

However, I would say that some amount of understanding has percolated down because of years and years of struggle of women’s movements. The attitude of courts has changed a lot and there is a greater amount of sensitivity now in trying rape cases. Now at least they don’t ask silly questions.

Take the example of legislature. How do you justify 92% seats reserved (de facto reservation) for men in state assemblies and national parliament?

It took us ten years to get a law against domestic violence passed in the parliament. We have been talking of separate budget allocation for women for years. It is only now that it has started to become an issue for our lawmakers. We can now hear our finance minister talking about gender budgeting in Parliament. So I would say that direction is towards gender sensitivity. But it is far from our level of satisfaction and far from giving dignity to the women in our country.

OWSA: According to a UN study, less than 8% of parliamentary seats, less than 6% of cabinet positions, less than 4% of seats in High Courts, less than 3% of administrators and managers are women. Clearly there is not enough representation of women in social, economic and political life of the country even after more than 60 years of independence. Why is it so?

RK: This is appalling indeed. We are now a 60-year old democracy and despite this mature system of democracy and a glorious Constitution if women are still not finding a place, then this is clear injustice. Our Constitution provides all forms of equality but when it comes to practice there is no equality, no justice, no representation.

I would say that these statistics speak volumes about how far we have moved in terms of making women participants in the decision-making bodies of the country.

OWSA: Reservation of seats for women in panchayati raj institutions was seen as a pioneering step. In fact, India today boasts of having the largest number of women representatives at the local governance level in the world. How far do you think it has been successful?

RK: As far as women’s increasing role in democratisation of the country is concerned, this figure of 1.3 million elected women representatives is a huge mobilisation. For winning a seat there must have been five contestants. This means a large number of women who never stepped out of their houses are coming out in the open to contest. This is a huge step. It is a bottom up approach to democracy. These women will become formidable leaders in the long run. They are learning how to deliver goods and services to the people.

In our study we have found that there is tremendous amount of bureaucratic control on these elected representatives. Bureaucracy at the local level is controlling and mismanaging all resources. You may have given power to these women to decide but they need resources to implement their decisions, which they lack. This is one of the reasons why these women have not been able to make a major impact in rural governance in spite of the fact that they are participating in such large numbers.

OWSA: What are the forces acting against a similar reservation in higher levels of governance in state assemblies and the Parliament?

RK: It’s a very important step that women of this country will take. It will be a sharing of real power. So far we have tried empowerment of women without power. We have tried working in areas of social and economic empowerment. All this was to help women get a voice of their own. Now they must use this voice not just for their own benefit or the benefit of their children but also for the benefit of society at large. And for that to happen they must get representation.

No bill in our country has seen this kind of fate as the reservation bill. We have seen five prime ministers come and go. From Chandrashekhar to Deve Gowda to I.K. Gujral to Atal Behari Vajpayee and now Manmohan Singh. None of them could deliver this bill for women.

There is some serious sense of insecurity among the men members of parliament. They are not allowing the bill to be passed. Unless this bill is passed and 33% reservation is given to women, it will remain not only a problem for the progress and promotion of women and their role in decision-making but also a question mark on India’s democracy and democratic system.

It is a total denial of justice to Indian women. We will not let it go. We will struggle till we get it.

OWSA: Can we also say that women in this country have not yet been able to shed their own patriarchal mindsets? How do women break the shackles of what we call ‘colonised minds’ that make them ‘subservient’ to men?

RK: Patriarchy does not refer to the male body or male person. It means a whole value system of domination and subordination. It manifests itself in different forms – caste, religion, ethnicity, gender, etc. I have never considered this as women versus men issue. It is patriarchy or an oppressive system versus rest of the people who are oppressed.

And that is why I agree with you that there is a need for reflection and to see what role women in power can play. Do they really think that the oppressed, and oppressed means women in a major sense, should get equality and justice? But I would still put major blame on men in power. It’s not easy for them to let power slip out of their hands, especially when they have traditionally controlled women for thousands of years.

It’s taking time for them to understand that sharing will be important for next level of growth and development. The value of partnership will have to be experienced, understood and institutionalised and then only people will move in that direction. In this the major impediment is patriarchy and the patriarchal mindset.

OWSA: Is the women’s movement growing in India?

RK: Indian women’s movement is one of the longest democratic movements post independence. It has had different phases and taken different forms. There is a phase of activism; there is phase of institutionalisation and so on. So the understanding has grown in the movement. Certainly the Indian women’s movement has matured and has taken new forms. Younger generation women are more active, more democratised, stronger and more confident.

From:http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/160402/1/5339