'Wanted' women in Indian Parliament

It is shame on the world's largest democracy- even after 60 years of independence- despite 14 general elections, Indian women still have an abysmal representation in Indian Parliament.

Women comprise half of the population in India, 340 million voters out of a total electorate of 710 million in 2009 - constitutes a lowly 9% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha .

Indian Parliamet will continue as a man's world as the recent list of candidates for the upcoming general elections announced by major Indian political parties contain disproportionately low numbers of the fairer sex.

In the Communist Party of India  list, for instance, only three out of the 60 contesting candidates are women. The Congress Party's list of 17 candidates for Kerala features only one woman, while the main opposition party - the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party - has only 26 women among its 166 candidates. The Samajwadi Party has just six women candidates out of a total of 71 standing for election.

This unequal representation of Indian women in national political parties is all the more disquieting given that the Indian constitution guarantees gender equality in the Articles 325 and 326.

India ranks 115th of 162 countries in terms of gender development. Indian patriarchal society not only harbours a culture of violence against women in the form of dowry, domestic violence and female infanticide, it also manifests even in government policies towards women.

The aggressive population control measures in states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, to implement the 2 children per family norm, blatantly target rural women to undergo forced sterilisations in the most unhygienic conditions. . These decisions are taken at state level by bureaucrats and MLAs who are predominantly male, with little concern or sympathy for women's health. Could such blatantly anti-women policies or laws pass through a Parliament where a third of the votes come from women themselves?

Attempts to establish reservations for women in the Indian Parliament have invoked stiff resistance - and even insecurities - among MPs, mostly male, who are unwilling to dilute their power.

Those openly opposing the bill have argued that reservations of 33% will only bring urban elite women to power. This is unlikely; no quota has ever seen a homogenous representation. But even if the argument were justified, should we believe that Indian women would rather continue to be represented by Mulayam Singhs and Lalu Yadavs than by their urban sisters? Jayalalithaa's AIADMK government in Tamilnadu is far more women-friendly than any Bihari or UP government in memory.

Brinda Karat, a Rajya Sabha member of parliament and a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), recently told Indian media that the low presence of women in the Indian legislature stems from the perception that they will be unable to mobilize adequate funds and, hence, are not considered "winnable".

Women's interests can never be completely represented by a group of men. The very treatment of the reservation bill is proof of this. Everybody agrees on the principle of equal participation for women, but none will lift an honest finger to ensure equal representation

Preventing women from creating their own leadership, and obstructing them from policy-making decisions is simply a continuation of the gender subjugation that has gone on for millennia in this land.

OneIndia News