The Politics of Women Rights in India

Introduction:

In the past, India was purely a male-dominated society and the women were supposed to follow certain norms and traditions. They were subjected to discrimination, crime violence, etc. to safeguard women in a better manner many activists, human rights mechanism and states are developing human rights framework. Eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and achieving equality between women and men are fundamental rights. Women in India take part in voting and also in political parties but it is to a very low extend as compared with men’s to have gender equality in politics there is a reservation of for women in local government. Women have held the posts of Chief Ministers of various states, Prime Minister of India and President of India. For many years women are being elected to state legislative assemblies and national ministry.

Constitutional Rights of Women

There is a parliamentary system of Government in India established by the Constitution of India. It guarantees the right to be elected, freedom to assemble and form associations, freedom of speech and vote to all citizens. A lot of efforts are been made by the Constitution of India to remove gender inequalities by prohibiting post labour and human trafficking, biased discrimination based on sex, creed and class. The Constitution of India has also reserved elected position for women.

The Indian government has directed the state and local governments to promote equality to women in all respects like equal pay, rights to work and education, free legal aid, etc. in early 20th century for the independence of India large movements were taking place and a large number of women’s took part in India’s independent movement. When we see historically the women in those periods were not given any facilities and their political participation was extremely low but after independence, the Constitutional rights of gender equalities made women to participate in different activities.

• Article 39 A of Constitution says that State must ensure opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reasons of economic or other disabilities.

• Article 46 imposes a duty on the State to protect the weaker section from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. Article 14 is the right to equality as a Fundamental Right.

• India is a signatory to the Convention for the elimination of discrimination against women which obliges states, under Article 7, to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in political and public life and in particular to ensure that women are as eligible as men to contest elections to all public bodies and they have the right to participate in contributing to the policies of the government and also in the implementation of it.

• Article 25 of the International Convenient on Civil and Political Rights which is binding on signatory state. India is also a signatory state to International Convenient on Civil and Political Rights. The article 25 says that ‘ every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity without any distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guarantying the free expression of the will of the voters.

Political Participation of Women

Voting

In response to National movement for the right to vote in 1900 the movement for women’s right to vote began. Before 1947 there was British Rule and the majority of men and women did not have the right to vote. But after the Indian independence, the constitution of India officially granted Women and Men the right to vote. Before the universal right to vote, women were granted the right to vote by the provincial legislature. In 1921 Madras was the first State which granted the right to vote to women though it was only for those who own land property as per the records of the British administration. In 1950 universal suffrage gave voting rights to all women’s and which is the article 326 of our constitution. The rate of participation of women in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is increasing. As the years are flying, the gap between men and women are becoming very thin.

A large number of women are competing for elections and they are also competing in state assemblies.

• In 1994 it was seen that there was very low participation of women in elections. As a remedy, our Constitution established reservations which are in 73^rd and 74^th amendments to reserve 33% of seats in local government for women.

• In the national parliament, the women’s reservation bill (108 amendments) is introduced to reserve 33% of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha seats for women.

• Local governing bodies in India are called Panchayati Raj institutions. One-third of the seats and leadership positions are reserved for women.

• Some states have increased the reservation of seats for women to 50% and the national government also proposes to raise the level of reservation of women in Panchayati Raj institutions to 50%.

After women’s reservations were established the participation of women’s in politics went from 4% -5% to 25%- 40%.

Contribution of Election Commission

• The election commission has improved the conduct of elections so that more women are encouraged to take part in elections. Taking part in elections develops an interest in the political site.

• They have provided the provision of separate queues for women voters and making the polling process easier and safe for women.

• Since 2006 the election commission has prohibited the publication of photographs of voters in electoral goals, barring a small stamp size photograph in the hard copy distributed to political parties.

• Voting conditions of women are further improved by making compulsory the presence of female polling staff members.

• With the view to encourage female voters, women police forces are diploid in the pooling booths.

• In Uttar Pradesh, during 2012 elections, the election commission decided to allow two women to proceed in the polling booth for every male voter who cast his vote. This was done to quicken the voting process for women.

• A comprehensive voter education drive was done by the election commission to directly encourage women to vote.

Political Parties

There are a large number of parties in India so we can say India has a multi-party system and at the national level 7 parties have registered. Three largest parties in India are the Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India (CPI). In large parties, there are women’s wings. The women’s wings of BJP is BJP Mahila Morcha, the women’s wings of INC is all India Mahila Congress and the Women’s wing of CPI is National Federation of Indian Women.

Political Activism

In 1910, Bharat Stree Mahamundal was the earliest women organization. It focused on helping women escaped oppression from men. in 1927 All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) was formed to advocate for women’s education and also was helpful in the passage of Hindu Board of Bills between 1952 and 1960. There was active participation of women in the freedom movement to protest against the British Colonial Rule. In 1974, the committee on the status of women in India released a report which highlighted the differences between men and women in India.

Adequate Women Representation in Elected Assembly

• In spite of progress women representation in the elected assembly is very low.

• In 1952, women comprise 6% of India’s first Lok Sabha. 62 years later the representation of women in Lok Sabha was 12.15%.

• At state level the average representation of women is only 7.3%.

• States like Nagaland or Mizoram have no women MLA’s.

Conclusion

The impact of quotas implemented has improved women’s representation in leadership positions. Though reservations have played a very important tool for women in politics to enter the parliament but it is also equally important to enable an environment with gender equality in terms of access and opportunities and also the distribution of resources. Though there are many women as Member of Parliament but there is the impact of men on them. If the women had the liberty to take action without pressure and work independently, then there will be a great impact on their performance and also there will be a tremendous transformation in their leadership. This can be achieved only by bringing awareness, reorganizations and demand of the women, by the women and for the women. It is seen that women Member Of Parliament, are remaining invisible or there are some barriers which restrict their growth and visibility in a male-dominated environment.

The foundation of political equality is the belief that man is a rational being and he has a capacity of political judgment. The political equality between men and women can be identified in more democratic rights such as freedom to express, right to form an association, to hold political opinion without any fear and civil liberties. The political equality can be examined on factors: Universal Adult Franchise and asses to political offices as well as democratic rights.