Civil Society Activism in India: Political Opportunities and Participation of Women in Empowerment Processes A Study of CASA in TamilNadu: India Dr. N.Amudha,Ph.D, Associate professor & Head of the Department, PG and Research Department of History, Queen Mary s college,(autonomous), Chennai-600004. TamilNadu, India. ID:ammurandha@gmail.com, Mobile: +91 9952048222 INTRODUCTION The subject of reservations for women in the different tiers of government has repeatedly emerged as a critical issue in the political history of 20 th century India. In the last few years, major sections of the women s movement in India have been campaigning actively, with considerable public support, to institute reservations for women. The pro-reservation stance seems to have begun in the late 1980s in response to the73rd and 74 th Constitutional Amendments which introduced 33 percent reservations for women in local self-government institutions-the village panchayats and urban municipal bodies respectively. These amendments were brought into force when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister at the centre as a topdown measure, hardly as a response from the grass-roots Even more interesting is that these legislations in favour of local self-government and quotas for women were passed without any debate, much less controversy. This was followed by the subsequent demand for a similar provision in Parliament and state assemblies (first tabled as 81 st Amendment bill in 1996), to the point where increasing women s representative presence seems to have become something of a contemporary battle-cry. National Policy for Women Empowerment The national policy of empowerment of women has set certain clear cut goals and objectives. The policy includes: Ø Creating positive environment through positive socio-economic and political policies for the full development of women to enable them to realise their full potential. Ø Equal access to participation and decision-making of women in social, political and economic life of the nation Ø Strengthening legal systems aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Ø Mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development process.
The objectives of the National Policy for the empowerment of women included the main provision of equal opportunity and access to participation and decisionmaking in social, political and economic life of women in rural areas including Dalit women i.e. the marginalised section in the society. Reservation plays a crucial role in breaking the stranglehold of traditionally dominant structure of panchayat raj institutions. Whenever the educated Dalits are occupying position, they work well in the panchayats for dalits. Reservation is an opportunity for them to participate in political and social activities along with other upper caste communities. Civil Society Organisations and PRIs Civil society organisations have taken over the increasing responsibilities in the development sector. Generating people s power and harnessing it for development purpose is their objective. While elected representatives have their obligations and accountability to the community, the civil society organisations have a role to strengthen the process of people s empowerment. The major role that the NGO sector has played is in facilitating changes in socio-economic environment through people s organisations. Other intervention areas have been capacity building of different stakeholders-pris and NGOs themselves, information dissemination and awareness programmes and advocacy. Role of CASA in Rural Women Development CASA (Church s Auxiliary for Social Action) is an autonomous relief and development organisation operational in the country since 1947 in almost all the states and union territories of India through its 4 zone and 14 sector offices. Ever since its inception, CASA have played a pivotal role in promoting socio-economic upliftment of most marginalised sections of the society. It visualizes a society wherein peace, justice, and equality prevail and all citizens irrespective of caste, creed, language, and religion live in peace and harmony further it looks forward to the poor, the marginalised and the underprivileged have equal opportunity for fullest development and their inner potential. The organisation acknowledge the underlying potential of the 73 rd Constitutional Amendment towards the process of empowerment of the poor and the marginalised, especially women through its unique ideology of self-governance and transfer of power to the grass-roots. CASA s Role in (fostering) empowering The Marginalised women CASA took much effort towards its mission of empowering the poor, the marginalised, the underprivileged and women, through decentralisation of decision making and transfer of power to the masses. It has identified thrust areas for action with regards to PRIs. It initiated the process of strengthening the grama sabhas, considered the lifeline for an effective and successful panchayats. Special effort has been made to involve women and women groups in the process. Another area of emphasis is to enable the women panchayat presidents to acquire capacities to use imaginative and creative ways and means to effectively utilise the available resources as well as identify new sources for resource mobilisation. All these efforts paved the way for local communities to join hands with CASA to translate the true message of the Act in its letter and spirit. Further many state level workshops were organised in the states of Maharashtra, M.P., Rajasthan, H.P., Tamil Nadu, and
Andra Pradesh to articulate the Role of CASA in PRIs in empowering the elected women representatives. Many village level meetings were conducted to create awareness among women representatives. CASA AN NGO ON DALIT LEADERSHIP The poor people cannot achieve development in isolation. They must interact dynamically with other local agencies in various ways. NGO s have an opportunity to play an intermediary role between state and non-state institutions in respect of participation, accountability and development. An NGO can provide the poor with the means of becoming aware of local government responsibilities and capacities. An NGO is an excellent medium to establish a process whereby people and government work together to solve local problems. Many welfare activities are carried out through panchayats for dalits. Dalit leaders and ward members need training and support for their effective representation in panchayat Raj Institutions. Training and capacity building are imperative needs for the panchayat leaders to improve their performance. Special attention must be paid to improve sanitation facilities to all communities, particularly the Dalits. Obviously, the above discussion lead us to the assumption that the NGO s as grass-root actors have evident role to play in mobilising the deserved group and train them in several development aspects so as to acquire knowledge in effective panchayat raj administration. It is in this context we can see the development of women empowerment process with the illustrations from the activities of CASA-NGO. The church s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) provides training to the elected dalit panchayat presidents and remains as a partner in the process of Dalit empowerment in kancheepuram district. Objectives 1. To study how far the systematic awareness-building and training given to them by NGOs enhanced their capacity to take up new responsibilities as local legislators and decision-makers under panchayat raj system. 2. To study their role in bringing governance very nearer to the people. 3. To examine the activities of CASA in empowering the weaker social sections especially the marginalised women. The training given to women elected leaders should be based on their own local experiences. This should enable them to analyse and understand their roles and responsibilities to long term rural development. `EMERGENCE OF WOMEN S ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS Women in many countries had to wage long and grim battle to get voting rights. It is a global experience that in any political system, right from the developed to the developing countries, women s presence in the political process is marginal and low. Women s movements for their rights started in the latter half of the 19 th century and continued till the first half of the 20 th century. Women organisations became the medium of expression of women s opinion. At the same time they were a training ground for women who could take up leadership roles in politics and social
institutions. Those institutions, in turn, played an important role in the construction of the Indian nation. Their model was undoubtedly western. Nevertheless, in the Indian context these organisations developed in harmony with a view of the new women as a companion and help-mate to man, an ideal mother and a credit to her country. 2 Male-inspired and male-guided organisations for women did invaluable work in educating women and providing them with first experience with public work. Women began to define their interests, propose solutions and take actions only after they formed their own associations. Women associations, called by various titles, sprang up all over India in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Saraladevi chaudhurani called for a permanent association of Indian women. Women responded favourably. Saraladevi s organisation, the Bharat Stree Mahamandal had its first meeting in Allahabad in1910 A.D. 3 They worked together to bring the women of every race, creed, class on the basis of their common interest in the moral and material progress of the women of India. The few surviving details of these early organisations give us the glimpses of women articulating their needs and assuming leadership roles. After First World War three major women s organisations were created. The Women s Indian Association (WIA), The National Council of Women in India (NCWI), and the All India Women s Conference (AIWC) emerged between 1917 and 1927. When the 33 rd session of the Indian National Congress met in Delhi in December 1918, Saraladevi Chaudhurani presented the resolution supporting the vote for women. In this grand session she told her audience that women had as much right to chart their own destinies as men for this was the age of human rights, justice, freedom, and self-determination. She further contented that the sphere of women included comradeship with men in the rough and tumble of life and to bring the fellow-workers of men in politics and other spheres. 4 The meetings were followed by gatherings all over India to express support for women s franchise. Women in the political process in India Women entered the political process through their massive participation in the national struggle for freedom under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Women played a very important role in the civil disobedience movement, the salt sathyagraha and the quit India movement of 1942. The educated women were struggling to get the right to vote and the right to get elected. It was said that the women participating in the struggle, especially, those who were in key positions were from the elite class. Not much had been written about thousands of infamous women, who were poor and had rural background,but who in their own humble way had participated in the national freedom struggle. 5 Some women leaders were very articulate in their ideas and their awareness of the situation was prevalent. For example, in 1917, even before women in England got the right to vote, Sarojini Naidu had petitioned to the British Parliament the Indian women s demand for equal voting rights with men. 6 The huge increase in women s participation helped them to develop a perspective on wider socio-political problems. It helped them in bringing about significant changes in the way of thinking and attitude to life of women. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble. Despite the opportunity of equal access to the political process guaranteed by law, the presence of women in politics is still scarce. Their
representation has never gone beyond 9 percent in parliament, 10 percent in State Assemblies and 15 percent in council of ministers. Even though India had a Prime Minister like Indira Gandhi- the longest survived women Prime Minister-Women have not been able to find space in the representative and decision-making bodies. For the development of status and position of women in the society, empowerment plays the key role. Empowering women must be a united approach, a cause that requires continued attention and stewardship by all. INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES: GENDER MAINSTREAMING AS A STRATEGY Global effect with strong support from the United Nations has been taken to understand the problem of discrimination and to restore equal status to women. The slogan has been equality, development and peace. During the last five decades the efforts made by U.N are quite noticeable and throw some light to enhance the status of women. In 1995 at the Fourth UN International Conference on Women, held in Beijing, gender mainstreaming was established as the internationally agreed strategy for government and development organisations to promote gender equality. The term gender mainstreaming came into widespread use with the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action at the 1995 UN International Conference on Women. It attempts to combine the strength of the efficiency and empowerment approaches within the context of mainstream development. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality. 7 INDIA S ACCEPTANCE TO EQUAL PARTICIPATION AND OPPORTUNITIES India has unequivocally endorsed the Beijing Declaration. Her strategies and action plans are to create an environment of harmony and partnership between men and women. The status of women across the countries indicates that around the world, there are no national legislatures in which women claim half of the seats. Experiences have proved that despite the constitutional arrangements, women all over the world have not been given actual power. It was realised that democratic norms cannot be realised if marginalised sections, which include women, are not in the mainstream of political process. Some of the research studies conducted in USA suggests that there is one-third participation of women in business. The same share may be extended in politics too. Therefore across the world one-third reservation or quota for women in the political decision-making is considered as a significant number. The representation of women in both the houses in Asia is lower than America and Europe. In the Arab states less than 10 percent of seats are occupied by women. In the case of India, it is 9 percent where as half of the India s population contributed by women National Constitutional Provisions in India In 1985, congress government under Rajiv Gandhi indicated that it wanted to give greater priority to women s issues. The result was the long term policy document for the empowerment of women in the National Perspective Plan 1988-2000 A.D. was announced. Rajiv Gandhi followed the recommendations of the National Perspective Plan in the formulation of the 64 th Amendment Bill of 1989. But the Bill could not be passed for various reasons in Rajya Sabha. The Bill re-emerged after three years in a slightly modified form as the 73 rd Amendment and was enacted under the government of Narasimha Rao on 22d December 1992. The Amendment
was quietly ratified without much discussion by the Parliament in April 1993, with the provision that the states had to introduce or amend their existing Panchayat Raj Acts accordingly till 24th April 1994. The 73 rd and 74 th amendments of constitution of India in 1993 are landmarks to ensure political empowerment of women. This gave statutory status to panchayats and provided 33 percent reservation of seats to women at every tier of the grassroots political institutions. The elections have revealed that the number of women in gram panchayats is increasing steadily. The granting of reservation to women at grass-root level institution inspired women to make a similar demand with regard to Lok Sabha and State legislatures. Women activists and academics have been intensifying their demands in this regard, but it is being met with a constant protest by the male members cutting across party lines. Democratic decentralisation without fiscal and administrative decentralisation can fail, if the local authorities lack the power and resources to make any local changes or progress. Both NGO s and Government Project implementing Agencies have evolved people in decision-making in a format where there is some community control over decisions taken by elected representatives recognised by the groups. In this case it can constitute genuine decentralisation. TRANSFORMING GOVERNANCE THROUGH WOMEN PARTICIPATION India is perhaps the first country to recognise and took concrete measures to draw women in to leadership positions and thereby into politics by giving them onethird reservation. Women participation is viewed as an instrument of ending age-long exclusions faced by women. It is extremely an important measure in expanding and deepening democracy in the region where politics has been traditionally perceived as a male domain. 8 Introduction of reservation system for women in local governance in many countries in south Asian region has resulted in significance increases in the number of women being elected and employed. This is a growing recognition of the impact that women have on political institutions and agendas as well as their different version of transformative leadership, a framework within which power is used o create change and develop people and communities. This type of leadership is non-hierarchical and participatory and it gives priority to disadvantaged sector. 9 TRANSFORMING WOMEN Bringing women to positions of political power in local government is just the first step in social transformation. Gender sensitisation of those in power whether men or women, is of critical importance. Over the years this perspective has gained acceptance within organisations, action groups and political parties. The year 2001 was observed as Women Empowerment Year by United Nations. The National Policy was evolved in the same year by the central government in India. The objectives of the national policy for the empowerment of women included the main provision of equal access to participation and decisionmaking in social, political, and economic life of women in rural areas including Dalit women. 10 For true equality to become a reality for women, the sharing of power on equal terms with men should be the major strategy, so that they can play an effective
role in decision making process, especially in areas where various policies have direct bearing on their well-being. 11 The legislative empowerment of the Gram Sabha in India is a political development of utmost importance, because it marks the clearest break from the most dominant political orthodoxy of this century. The belief is that people cannot exercise political power directly that the power of ordinary people must be mediated by institutions that act on behalf of the people. Stressing the importance of the role of NGO s, General Secretary of U.N. Kofi Annan, in an address to the world economic forum in 1998 said, We know that peace and prosperity can t be achieved without partnerships involving government international organisations, the business communities and civil societies. In today s world we depend on each other. It is possible only through this unique relationship that is known for their virtues of human touch, dedication, flexibility, self-reliance and nearness to community. It is also appreciated that the magnitude of awareness created among the most backward section of the society, by the NGOs during the last 20 years is far more successful and visible than the entire government s effort in the last 50 years. In India voluntary organisations play a vital and vibrant role in facilitating decentralised development. They act as a vehicle for popular participation and mobilisation of people and resources. The extent to which they are successful in influencing the masses depends on the success of decentralised policy. Involvement of voluntary organisations with Panchayat Raj Institutions would certainly boost up the efforts of development due to various socio-cultural reasons. In a vast country like India, it is not possible for the government to live up to the promise of a truly state. There are vast areas concerning development and welfare that are left uncovered. 12 They have spread their tentacles in every walk of life that directly concerns the masses especially the under privileged, dalit and the downtrodden. It is in this scenario that NGO s step in and justify their existence in India. 13 As the local bodies both in the rural and urban areas have the constitutional entities, it is natural that they have greater functions and responsibilities to carry out the tasks. The NGO-Panchayat relation in the field of actions is very crucial from the view point of achieving something pertinent in our country. A meaningful coordination between the two and government bodies will go a long way in facilitating development and social change at the grass-roots(fn 14) level. 14 NGO s are preferred because they have more accountability to the poor and the marginalised as they work within the people while the official system is yet to be one hundred percent pro-poor. To Strengthen the PRI the civil Society Organisations should; Act as a neutral agency and moderator between Ø Villagers and Panchayat representatives. Ø Enable capacity building of women presidents Ø Providing training Ø Enable the leaders to effectively utilise available resources and identify new resources for resource mobilisation for self-reliance.
Ø Enable women welfare groups to take up village development issues. Ø Provide encouragement and confidence to more active and dedicated women members to contest in future elections. CHALLENGES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS The top down model of development practised in the country during the British rule and after independence had destroyed these institutions of self-governance. The mind set and the perspectives of the poor communities have been methodically conditioned to a state of passivity through years of subjugation. Thus despite the introduction of legislation aimed at reconstructing these models of self-governance, poor remain at the receiving end. Though India has made progress in developing women s capabilities, inequalities continue to exist between men and women. The low status of women is the outcome of a variety of cause as in which patriarchal values reinforced by tradition, media and other socio-political institution play a major role. Thus the institutional bases of women s oppression have to be sensitised to accept the gender equality and moreover, women s perception of themselves would also need to be changed. 15 It requires regressive, incessant, effort to rebuild the ideology, capacities and mechanism of bottom up planning. Bringing transformation in the institutions of localself governance is the real challenge that civil society organisations face. The civil society organisations have played an appreciable role in creating social movements, promoting and facilitating social justice, equality and equal opportunity to all citizens, Linkages have been developed between the panchayats and non-governmental organisations. A meaningful co-ordination between these two and government bodies will go a long way in facilitating development and social change at the grassroots level. CASA s Role in Empowering Rural Women As a reflection to CASA s belief in participatory development process and its collective, collaborative and decentralised approach, a forum was conceptualised to address issues of elected women representatives. Casa has been actively working on Panchayat raj issue in Kancheepuram District. The planned activities that have been carried out in the state are promotion of sustainable agriculture, promotion of income generating activities, and community organisations and capacity building. However special focus of the intervention is on women empowerment and the 73 rd Constitutional Amendment. They have intervened in capacity building of Panchayat raj representatives by conducting several training programmes. They continue their efforts towards creating awareness among the villagers. Training programmes were organised to develop understanding of the process of decentralised administration, functions of panchayats and civil society interventions focusing on the pre- election campaigns. At the end of the training sessions the participants also sketched out several action-points for an effort towards pre-election interventions. This was quite a creative session as the participants designed pre-election campaign posters and prepared slogans, selected and refined stories for street plays and prepared lyrics for a set of songs that were composed and sung by the participants themselves.
Ø CASA created co-ordination between government departments and officials and they bring about awareness on government rules and regulations. Ø Casa encourage persons who think positively for their village to contest for elections Ø Call for small group meetings at the grama panchayat level Ø Identify village based issue. Ø Create awareness through different media such as posters/cassettes/street plays. Ø Select and train eligible candidates with promising potential Ø Ensure women participation Village Communities welcome the Campaign Panchayat raj Awareness and voters Education Campaign was (PRAVEC) conceptualised by CASA in order to encourage active participation of villagers, especially of women and the marginalised section and to promote deserving candidates who are sentient to the village priority needs. Interventions primarily focus on empowerment of women and the marginalised sections of the society. All the people who had interacted with the campaign workers had welcomed PRAVEC because of its non-political objective and the anticipated positive impact. Few women representatives who were unaware of 73 rd Constitution Amendment acknowledged that they got the related information for the first time and through the PRAVEC campaign posters. Those candidates even promised that after getting elected they would work towards making the panchayats answerable and transparent. DECISION- MAKING OF VILLAGE WOMEN-THROUGH NGO-CASA: A SURVEY OF THREE VILLAGES OF KANCHEEPURAM DISTRICT CASA has conducted many workshops and training programmes periodically for dalit women empowerment especially for the elected dalit women representatives and presidents from Walajabad Union, in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu. In these union three Panchayat unions namely; Keelaottiwakkam Panchayat, Natthanallur Panchayat, and Waranawasi Panchayat have been chosen as sample for the field research. The primary survey was carried out in these villages. It has been chosen as sample to understand the empowerment of elected women representatives (marginalised section in the society) especially Dalit women through NGO-CASA in the panchayat raj system in Tamil Nadu, India. CASA has enabled the panchayat presidents to organise model Grama Sabha, community development organisations and have issued peoples manifestoes in which alternative development programmes were suggested which is suitable for different types of panchayats. CASA has been successful in promoting women leaders in local governance as panchayat leaders, ward members, and councillors. The involvement of women leaders from the community in local governance is facilitated by regular village meetings and training workshops.
METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION This study deals with the empowerment of dalit women elected representatives through CASA. Descriptive and analytical methods have been used for this study. As such primary data relating to the socio-economic profile of he dalit women panchayat presidents in three villages have been collected. In kancheepuram district there are 648 village panchayats. Out of these 139 wards were reserved for women in general category and 83 were reserved for women of SC/ST communities. We can say that the dalit women are slowly becoming politically active class of citizens and are taking much interest in local body elections. The silent revolution is taking place in the area of local body politics. In general though their level of participation is very low as compared to men, mobilisation and training of rural women in politics will definitely change the face of Indian politics. CASE STUDIES WOMEN IN ACTION: MODEL DALIT WOMEN PANCHAYAT PRESIDENTS The 73 rd Amendment Act provided a space for the critical mass to perform critical action. By using this space the critical mass not only deepened the democracy at the grass-root level by concentrating on people oriented issues, but also they have realised its full potential and engender the governance. They have collaborated with civil society organisations like CASA, women s movement, political societies towards mainstreaming and democratizing political system. They brought human development centric approach to their governance. This was proved through the following case studies. Noyyadubakkam panchayat is situated in Uthiramerur Panchayat union in Kancheepuram district. The panchayat president Mrs. K. Sarasu (age 32) had studied up to 10 th standard. In the first election she was elected as a councillor. In the second election she was elected as a president in Noyyadubakkam village. She do not have any problem with vice-president who is also a female member namely kala. She is very co-operative with the president for her development works in this village. She did all the basic facilities like drinking water, street light, improvement to burial ground and its approach road have been improved. Implementation of group house scheme has been properly done under her leadership. She frequently meets the B.D.O. and district collector to solve her village problems.she selected right beneficiaries in her village for government schemes. Selvi k. Amsa (age 38) is the President of Keelaottiwakkam village Panchayat in wallajabad Union, kancheepuram district. She has elected continuously for the two consecutive terms i.e. first term from 2006-2011 and second term from 2011-2016.She developed a plan for her panchayat. There was a poor water facility when she came to power. But now she has constructed 7 water tanks. So there is no water problem to this village even during summer season. 75 percentages of the people in this village belong to SC community and 25 percentages belong to other communities. As the vice-president belongs to upper caste, he is very un-cooperative towards the dalit president. Health and sanitation facilities have been properly done in this village.
In Natthanallur village panchayat, the president Amali sudha age 33 is struggling hard to do any facilities to her village. As she belongs to opposite party, the government is not providing any welfare scheme allotment to this village. She is unable to provide even water facilities to her panchayat. This people are in need of one lakh litter water for their daily use. But they have been provided only 30,000 litters of insufficient water. There is a big pipe line from River Pallaru for Joint Drinking Water facility scheme, running through this village. So much of water is being wasted due to the water leakage in five pipe lines. The president is continuously representing the government to divert the water (which is being wasted due to leakage) to their village. Many times she met the district collector, Member of the Legislative Assembly and Tamil Nadu Water Development Board Engineers to meet out her demands. Inspite of her continuous representation, her request has not been attended. This village is under acute water scarcity. The village is badly in need of pipelines for the entire area for the supply of drinking water. Further they are in need of full time nurse and one full time doctor to meet out their health care. Due to lack of the facilities the pregnant women and children are suffering a lot. As it is very close to state capital Chennai city, many industrialists established their factories near their village. The president of this village AmaliSudha said that, environmental issues have become acute and as a result the people lost their source of pure drinking water. Some people in the name of development have spoiled the natural resources. As a panchayat president she started her agitation against all these. She brought it to the notice of the government. The government instructed the officials to take steps. But they have not done anything. The people have extended support to the panchayat to fight against such atrocities. Deivanayagi (age 56) is the President of Varanavasi Panchayat. She studied only 4 th standard. Her first tenure was from 1996-2001 and second term was from 2011-2016. During her first term of office she received best panchayat president award from district collector Thiru Irai Anbu IAS. With no previous experience she has been able to overcome all the hurdles and pilot a well functioning panchayat. She set an inspiring model not only to dalit women panchayat presidents, but to all panchayat presidents. She is capable of analysing problems, identifying proper remedies and taking appropriate decisions. After attending training course, she introduced the practice of conducting ward meetings prior to the Grama Saba meeting. She gives opportunity to every one in the ward to participate in the discussions. CASA plays an important role in empowering elected women panchayat presidents. It gives wider choices and building the capabilities of women. Today, women are moving away from the traditional roles prescribed for them. They are learning the art of balancing domestic responsibility with professional ambition. No doubt women are entering unfamiliar arenas with many odds mostly social and cultural against them.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Affirmative action through the 73 rd Amendment Act had created a massive rise in the numerical strength of women in PRIs. Compared to the upper caste women, the lower caste women require more encouragement in terms of education and training due to the history of discrimination meted out to them. The reservation of seats has either willingly or unwillingly made the SC/ST women to enter the political forum at the grass-roots. Non-Governmental organisations play an important role by spreading awareness, training the women to build their confidence and leadership abilities through various capacity building programmes. The marginalised women in PRIs are First generation Learners. They have been gradually becoming more and more aware of their political rights and many have slowly started to make a difference in grass-root politics. Women leaders in the Panchayat Raj are transforming the local governance by sensitising the state to issues of water scarcity, alcohol abuse, poor education, health, domestic violence, poverty, inequality, gender injustice etc. But the curious logic is that the state governments would incessantly demand more power from the central government by saying that they are closer to the people and with more power they would be able to render much better and quicker service to the people. However, they would never consider the local bodies as very close to the people and with real power they would be sensitive to the people s needs and problems. The need of the hour is to encourage and strengthen these women towards leadership which would go a long way not only to achieve their real empowerment but will also help them to render good governance and to delimit the corruption in the development of the rural areas in an effective way. People should locate the women of calibre and leadership qualities in each panchayat area. They need to be trained in the art of administration. It is to be noted that empowering women alone is not sufficient. It should go hand in hand with gender sensitisation among male administrative machinery, police and legal system. The mass media can also play a vital role in awareness generation. Audio visual and print media can help in formulating positive opinion and creating a sympathetic issue, which in the long run may result in society s recognition of women s equality with men. Inspite of many obstacles to women s political effectiveness, there is evidence from decentralisation experiments in all parts of the country that women do manage to articulate priorities in local planning and decision-making. Their decisions happen to be different from men s decisions. It has been observed that the levels of corruption had come down and the usage of common resources has been channelized. It has been proved in our case studies. Strong women movements are needed to debate priorities to legitimate feminist policy demands and press them upon political parties and government leaders at local, state and national levels. Women s participation in the political arena is something that has to be watched over in the next few decades as they will be the major players in good governance.
REFERENCES 1. Meena Dhanda, (ed.) Reservations for Women, Kali for Women, New Delhi, 2008, p.30. 2. Geraldine Forbes, Women in modern India, Cambridge University Press, Uk, 1999, p.65. 3. Saraladevi, A Women s Movement, MR October, 1911, p.345. 4. Report of the Thirty-Third Session of the Indian National Congress, Delhi, December 26-31, 1918 pp-118-121. 5. Niroj sinha, Women in Indian Politics, Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi, 2000, p.21. 6. Ibid. 7. Amitava Mukkerje, p.182. 8. Alka Srivatsava, Place and Role of women in Panchayat Raj: In context of Empowerment of Elected women Representative Women s Link, Vol.10, July-September 2004, p.39. 9. Jean rage, Women in Local Government Asia and Pacific: A comparative Analysis of Thirteen Countries, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2001, p.5. 10. Bhagyalakshmi, J. Women s Empowerment: miles to go, Yojana, Vol.48, August 2004, p.39. 11. Bhatt.G.D, Empowerment and Status of Rural Women: A Central Himalayan Perspective, M.D. publications Pvt.Ltd., New Delhi, 1998, p.179. 12. Sawalia Bihari Verma, Role of Self Help Groups, NGO s and Panchayati Raj Institutions in Promoting Rural India, Indusvally Publications, Jaipur, 2004, p. 57. 13. Ibid. 14. Jayant Kumar (ed.), Panchayayi Raj Awareness and Voters Education Campaign, CASA, New Delhi, June 2003, p.1. 15. kurukshetra, May 2006, p.27.