LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Women's Representation in Polity -
A Need to Enhance Their Participation

M. Jayamala, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
J. Sheela, B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D.

Abstract

There is a general impression that development means just creation of infrastructure. As a result of this, development could not become need-based and relevant to social circumstances.

Participation implies participation at all stages of the programme, viz., planning, formulation, implementation, decision-making, sharing the benefits of development, monitoring and evaluation.

The development of human resources particularly women have been neglected/denied. Educational backwardness is the major reason why women lag behind men. Moreover, women in India experience unacceptable levels of violence in the family within the community, work place, public places and at the custodial institutions.

It is the manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have lead to domination over and discrimination against women and the prevention of women's full advancement. The paper attempts to look into the progress of women's participation in polity.

Participation in polity carves out for themselves a place of significance. The attempt of the study is based on the secondary source of Inter Parliamentary Union Reports and Reports from Government of India. Based on the data it is inferred that the rate of female representation at national level stands at merely 18 per cent globally. In India, women hold only 28 of 242 seats. Women were proposed for 33 per cent reservation by the parliament but yet the society witness lungpower battles over the Women's Reservation Bill.

Gender identity is the realistic and regenerative developmental effort in the direction of progress, in terms of economic independence for women and for their educational advancement. It simply means the manifestation of redistribution of power that challenges patriarchal ideology and male dominance. In India, the sixth five year plan (1980-85) may be taken as a landmark for the cause of women. During this plan period, the concept of 'women and development' was introduced for the first time.

Problems of Perception

Presently there is a general impression that development means just creation of infrastructure. As a result of this, development could not become need-based and be relevant to social circumstances. The development happens when there is fruitful participation of both men and women in all the stages of a programme: planning, formulation, implementation, decision-making, sharing the benefits of development, monitoring and evaluation.

But the real situation is that the development of human resources particularly women have been neglected/denied. Educational backwardness is the major reason for why women lag behind men. Moreover, women in India experience unacceptable levels of violence in the family, within the community, work place, public places and at the custodial institutions.

Male Domination and Gender Discrimination

Male domination and gender discrimination like child marriages, dowry demands, wife battering, bigamy, polygamy and discrimination in food intake, employment, education, health and nutrition facilities are some of the threatening social evils, which need an immediate attention to be eradicated. Thus it is the manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have lead to domination over and discrimination against women and the prevention of women's full advancement.

It is evidenced that more than one billion people in the world today, the great majority of who are women, live in unacceptable conditions. While women are responsible for 68 per cent of the food production and are the driving force behind 70 per cent of small enterprises with nearly 35 per cent of the families dependent on them, yet they constitute 70 per cent of the world's poor (UNDP, 1995).

Condition of Women in India

In India, women encounter human poverty, which is manifested through deprivation in basic development caused by factors that include illiteracy, malnutrition, early deaths, poor health care and poor access to safe water (Argiropoulous et al., 2003). The poverty of women in India is increasing as a result of globalization, social policies that neglect women, inequality in employment and existing gender based social repression. It is true that women share one-third of the total workload in the world. Women are still less autonomous in the utilization of resources (Agarwal, 1992).

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