the reservation of seats for women in the institution of local self-government

The 73rd Amendment along with 74th is called a silent revolution. The most revolutionary provision is said to be the reservation of one-third of the seats for women in local bodies (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the SCs and STs). Further not less than one-third of the total number of offices of chairpersons in the panchayats at each level shall be reserved for women. 

Impact of amendment on patriarchal character of Indian political process: 

• But has it really made a considerable impact towards improving the status of women is debatable. In spite of progressive nature of the constitution, traditional social structures that restricted women’s social participation were reinforced in which men hold primary power and pre-dominate roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege. 

• The reservation of seats in the panchayati raj institutions has enabled women to contest and win elections but lot of structural and procedural challenges restrict their capacity to become effective leaders. Women’s increased vulnerability to poverty, lower educational status and lack of financial independence are all compounded by the perpetuation of traditional and outdated social attitudes, which give preference to male leaders. Women are often assumed to be proxy for male family members, who are not able to contest the seat due to reservation system and their capacity to make their independent decisions is completely compromised. 

• The violent nature of politics also has negative impact on women’s political participation and makes it difficult for them to exercise their power and decisions in today’s politics and continues to pose big challenges for them. The women from ST/SC categories have to face double burden of caste and gender discrimination due to which they are pushed towards the outskirts of mainstream Indian politics. The women from minorities are also subjected to the ill effects of patriarchy. 

Following data shows that there is no major change in women participation in politics in India even after enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act: 

• According to Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women report — Women in Politics, 2017, the Lok Sabha had 64 (11.8 per-cent of 542 MPs) and Rajya Sabha 27 (11 per cent of 245 MPs) women MPs. 

• There are just 62 women among the 678 elected members of the Assemblies in the elections, as per data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Centre for Policy Research. It was 77 in the previous election. The total number of women MLAs has come down to 9 per cent in 2018 from 11 per cent in 2013. 

• In India, between 2010 and 2017 women’s share rose 1 percentage point in the Lower House (Lok Sabha) 

• Representation of women at local government levels varied from state to state. There are 13.72 lakh elected women representatives (EWRs) in PRIs (Panchayati Raj Institutions) which constitute 44.2 per cent of total elected representatives (ERs) as on December, 2017. 

• Women’s participation in political parties remained low in the 1990s with 10-12% membership consisting of women. From 1980-1970, 4.3% of candidates and 70% of electoral races had no women candidates at all. 

In order to see effective results of all the constitutional and governmental efforts towards women empowerment and their increased participation in political sphere for a more inclusive social order, there is a need to address the several structural and institutional deficiencies which result in the limited success of the schemes and programmes of the government.