HSS F362: Local Governance and Participation

Lecture 12 : 10-9-2024

Mohan Kumar Bera

BITS Pilani Goa Campus
• Women in Panchayati Raj
 Equality and Equity
• Equality
– Equal
– Equality= Sameness
– It justifies things on the basis of quantity
– Equality is measurable
– Equality does not look at what is needed for an individual
– Equality might give rise to negative discrimination

• Equity
– Equity= Fairness and justice
– Support
– Equity is need based approach
– It focuses on need and requirement of an individual. Thus, known as need
based approach
– Equity is positive discrimination

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• There are three ways in which state seek to address the problem of
social inequality:

1) A Preferential treatment: disadvantaged person will be preferred for

government job over others
– No dilution of academic qualification

2) Affirmative action: Scholarship, training, hostel and other facilities

» Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship, Eklavya school

3) Positive discrimination: even they are not equal, members of

disadvantaged groups will be given preferences
– Members with lesser qualifications may be selected to fill the post

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 Does India need a caste based reservation?

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 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• The merits of providing women with quotas or reservations in representative
bodies have been debated seven to eight decades ago in India.

• During the early years of the 20th century, when the freedom movement was
taking shape, the main struggle was for male and female adult franchise, but
the demand for quota of seats for women also made itself heard.

• Many committees and commissions visited India at the behest of the British
Government to elicit Indian views on the subject of franchise as well as on
eligibility for entry into the provincial assemblies.

• One of the Franchise Committee visited India in 1918 and returned with the
impression that women of India did not need the franchise, as it would be out
of harmony with the conservative feeling in the country.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• The 1919 Government of India Act did not therefore, provide the right of
franchise to women, while for men, certain conditions were placed on the
eligibility for exercising franchise, such as possession of property and
educational qualifications.

• When the Simon Commission visited India (1928), a group of women appeared
before it and asked for reservation of seats for women in the legislative
assemblies in order to encourage women and to represent women's interests
in subjects such as education and social welfare.

• But this demand did not reflect the opinion of the majority of members of
national women's organisations.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background

• They felt that to ask for special treatment was to dilute the ideal of equality
between men and women.

• Women's organisations, which disapproved of reservations or special quotas for

women included the All India Women's Conference and the National Council for
Women in India.

• They demanded equality with men for franchise rights, but did not want special
treatment as women. To them it was a retrograde step.

• Leaders like Sarojini Naidu and Aruna Asaf Ali held very strong views on this
subject. At the same time, there was a general lament on the lack of women
members in the assemblies, especially when issues such as child marriage were
being discussed.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• However, in the Government of India Act of 1935, seats were reserved for
women in the legislatures on communal basis to a very small extent of 5%.
Franchise was made subject to wifehood qualifications.

• The national women's organisations continued with their protests not only
against the reservations but also against the Government's failure to grant
universal franchise to women.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• After Independence, women did not participate in large numbers in the
elections. They had miniscule representation in the legislatures at the centre
and in the states, though the new Constitution provided universal adult
franchise and full equality before the law between men and women.

• This poor representation of women in the House of People (Lok Sabha) and
the State Assemblies was a disappointing picture after the spirited struggle
put up by the women freedom fighters for equality with men and its
acceptance by the Government.

• In the Lok Sabha, the first elections witnessed a total of 43 women who
contested, out of which 14 were elected, whereas the total strength of the
House was 489.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• There is no clear explanation of this contrast between the ferment, the
mobilization and the energy of women in the freedom struggle prior to
independence and the stagnation and quiet that characterized 'women's
participation in public life afterwards.

• The percentage of women contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the
1952 elections to the' 1996 election's averaged a low 3.2%.

• The Committee on the Status of Women in India, which was set up and
commissioned by the Government of India, to look at the progress
achieved by the women of the country in realizing the rights and promises
that had been bestowed on them by the Constitution, examined afresh
the issue of representation of women in legislative bodies in the
framework of India's functioning democratic norms.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• The Committee found that the women were facing tremendous difficulties
in the absence of adequate numbers of spokespersons, who would
present their problems before the legislatures.

• The political parties would only pay lip service to the cause of increasing
opportunities for women's political advancement.

• Therefore, some system of proportion of seats reserved for women

seemed to be necessary if the continuing decline in women's membership
of legislatures was to be arrested.

• Such a system of reservation, if put into place, would encourage women to

shed their inhibitions and build confidence in themselves.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• It would also give an incentive to the political parties to give tickets to
more women candidates.

• On the other hand, the majority of members of the Committee, dominated

by women in public life opposed the suggestion to reserve seats for
women on the same reasoning used by the national women's
organisations and the women leaders of the freedom movement fifty years
ago.

• To them, it would be a retrograde step, one that would "reinforce the

separate identity of women rather than promote their representation and
integration with the rest of society", in the words of one of the members. ‘
– The majority view prevailed and the two members, who did not agree, recorded
their note of dissent.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• The Committee has made recommendations for all - women statutory
panchayats at the village level to ensure greater participation by women in the
political process.

• These were envisaged as integral parts of the panchayati raj structures and not
parallel organisations.

• The Committee had recommended that the Chairman and the Secretary of the
Gram Panchayat would be ex-officio members of the Women's Panchayats and
vice-, versa, so as to have a viable relationship.

• Separate all-women panchayats were considered necessary to make a clean

break with the prevailing culture of "tokenism" for women.

• This measure would help women to gain the confidence to speak out and to
manage their own affairs. They would be able to effect better field level
coordination in programme related to women and the social sector.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background
• The Draft National Perspective Plan (1988) suggested a 30% reservation
for women through elections, failing which by nomination,

• The women's groups felt that women should come into the panchayats
only through the mode of election and strongly objected to 'this
recommendation in the draft NPP.

• The final Plan dropped the suggestion to nominate women and confined
the method of selection to elections only.
• The Government then incorporated this provision into the Constitutional
amendments.
 Reservation for Women: The History, the
Context and the Background

• The reservations are therefore a compensatory measure or an affirmative action, put

into place so as to make up for the declining number of women and the stagnation in
political participation, which in turn is caused by the unwillingness of political parties to
give tickets to women.

• Affirmative action is intended to make preferential treatment legitimate, as the group for
whom this is being done cannot enjoy equality in the absence of preferential treatment.

• But preferential treatment is not discriminatory of the equality clauses when it is in

favour of a group of people who have always suffered discrimination at the hands of
more powerful forces in society.

• The women political leaders on many occasions expressed their objection to being
clubbed with weaker sections, such as the socially depressed classes.

• They wanted women to be seen as strong and autonomous beings, able to battle with
societal challenges-on their own terms.
 Reservation: An Instance of Positive
Discrimination
• The Constitution of India pronounces that men and women are equal in the
eyes of laws. Neither is superior to the other before a judge.

• Laws shall apply equally to both men and women. Further, it says that the State
shall not discriminate against any citizen on the grounds of sex.

• In other words; men cannot be discriminated against by giving women a better

deal, as that would violate the fundamental right to equality between the sexes.
Yet, the Constitution has also enunciated in Article 15(3) that the State shall
make special provisions for women and children.

• The framers of the Constitution believed that abstract declaration of equality

between men and women would not suffice to remove the accumulated weight
of disabilities that women are burdened with over many generations.
 Reservation: An Instance of Positive
Discrimination
• To equip women to get over these handicaps, the State has to adopt a positive
and pro-active role in helping women.

• Women may have to be treated differently in order to ensure equality status.

This kind of a complex proposition had to be safeguarded by a law as not being
violative of the fundamental right to equality.

• Article 15(3) legitimizes action on the part of the Government to take special
measures for women. This type of action is termed affirmative action or
positive discrimination.

• Courts have upheld reservations for women in local bodies and educational
institutions as not violating the fundamental right of equality between the
sexes.

• Reservations for women in panchayats fall under this category of positive

discrimination, covered under the 'special provision' clause of Article 15(3).
 The obstacle
• The presence of lakhs of elected women in the panchayats has triggered a
negative response from many of the vested interests (largely male), who
were earlier playing the part of power brokers themselves.

• The negative responses have led to an orchestrated campaign against the

women in which many wrong notions, misleading ideas and false myths are
being propagated about these women. These include the following:

• That elected women are only proxies for their male relatives.

• That elected women have no time or interest to attend to their work as

elected members.

• That elected women are illiterate and therefore incapable of understanding

the work involved. That elected women have no interest in political work.
 The Gains of the Elected Women
• 1. Personal transformation:
• 2. Collective transformation:
• 3. Greater understanding of political processes:
• 4. ldentity as women, as a lobby, which is above castes,
community or party:
• 5. Also, the elected women have made a difference to the
institution of Panchayati Raj: