Relevance: GS-2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes.

Key Phrases: Latin America, Women’s Reservation Bill, Quota Systems, DBT, Maternity Benefit, inclusive societies, legislative bodies.

Context

• The voter turnout of women has increased as compared to past decades. There must now be push for more women to be elected to legislative bodies and hold decision-making positions in political parties.

Background

• Sustainable Development Goal 16 provides for the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies. A key component of an inclusive society is active participation by women in political processes.
• Despite the many horrors we have witnessed since the Covid-19 pandemic began, there have been some positive developments, the most pertinent being the growing role of women in strengthening the political and civic life of democracy in South Asia.
• At the global level, much has already been written about the superior performance of women leaders, such as Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Tsai-Ing Wen (Taiwan), Sanna Marin (Finland) and KK Shailaja (Kerala), in handling the pandemic.

Electoral representation of woman in India

• In electoral representation, India, for instance, has fallen several places in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s global ranking of women’s parliamentary presence, from 117 after the 2014 election to 143 as of January 2020.
• India is currently behind Pakistan (106), Bangladesh (98) and Nepal (43) and ahead of Sri Lanka (182).
• In India, women currently make up 14.6 per cent of MPs (78 MPs) in the Lok Sabha, which is a historic high. Although the percentage is modest, it is remarkable because women barely made up 9 per cent of the overall candidates in 2019.
• BJP women candidates won at a strike-rate of 73 per cent as opposed to their male counterparts at 66 per cent.
• Additionally, 27 of 41 women MPs were able to retain their seats as well.
• Similarly, of the 50 women candidates fielded by the Trinamool Congress in last year’s West Bengal Assembly elections, 40 won. This proves that the winnability (the basis on which political parties claim to give tickets) of women is much higher than of men.
• In terms of electoral quotas, there were two outstanding exceptions in the 2019 general elections. West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee and Odisha under Naveen Patnaik opted for voluntary parliamentary quotas, fielding 40 per cent and 33 per cent women candidates, respectively.

Addressing the Top Five Factors Deterring Women from Entering Politics

• Domestic responsibilities
• Prevailing cultural attitudes regarding the role of women in society
• Lack of support from family
• Lack of confidence
• Lack of finances

Steps to bring woman in politics

1. Develop Competency of Women Candidates.
   • Mentoring and training programs prepare women for political work and enhance their political skills.
   • Local-level positions equip women with the skills necessary for higher levels of public office and careers in regional and national politics. Thus, initiatives focused on encouraging women to enter local politics can be particularly effective at raising women’s participation in political processes.
2. Government Support of Women’s Political Participation
   • State funding of initiatives promoting women’s participation in political parties. These initiatives hold seminars, training events, lobby to get more women elected, and provide networks for women politicians.
3. Increase Women’s Access to Political Institutions
   • Work with political parties to identify potential women candidates, increase public demand for women party candidates and leaders and build alliances with men to support gender equality.
   • Train election management bodies and election observers to identify and address barriers to women’s voting prior to elections and promote trust and integrity in the electoral process.
4. Increase Political Party Support for Women
   • Meetings at convenient and friendly places and at times when women can attend.
   • Financial support for caring responsibilities or the provision of child care.
   • Separate women’s wings or organizations within parties.
5. Tracking Women’s Representation
   • Regular reliable data on women’s representation is necessary to track progress and identify challenges and successes.
6. Transform Attitudes
   • Creativity in raising awareness is essential for making the initiative visible and popular. For example, in Croatia, street performances and a “pillar of shame” was utilized to publicize political parties that did not comply with gender equality principles.
7. Establish Quota Systems
   • Half of the countries of the world use some type of electoral quota for their parliament.
   • Quotas represent an efficient mechanism for increasing the number of woman participating in political processes. However, quotas should be contemplated with other measures. Quotas help to promote a “critical mass” of women into politics.

Way forward

• The extent to which parties represent women and take up their interests is closely tied to the health and vitality of democratic processes. However, the strength of civil society initiatives is not entirely dependent on the strength of political institutions.
• The Government must use its parliamentary majority to finally pass the Women’s Reservation Bill, as was promised in their 2014 election manifesto.
• At this crucial juncture, to cherish our democratic values, we will need to sympathise with the voice of the 15th century Bengali poet, Ramoni, a low-caste washerwoman, who sang, “I’ll not stay any longer in this land of injustice/ I’ll go to a place where there are no hellhounds”.

Sources: Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q. The position of women in Indian politics is becoming stronger day by day. Briefly discuss how woman’s participation in politics will strengthen the democracy? (Words 250).