Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

SHGs as Change Agents in Enhancing the Political Participation 323
EVIDENCE OF IMPACT
Women in Panchayati Raj Institutions
A close look at the post-73rd Amendment phase of PRIs vis-à-vis women’s
participation shows mixed results. On the positive side, we find that
women have become more articulate, despite their low levels of literacy.
They have begun asserting control over resources. They regularly attended
panchayat meetings. In many instances, they have used their elected authority
to address issues such as children’s education, drinking water facilities,
family planning facilities, hygiene and health, quality of health care, and
village development such as pucca roads and electricity in their panchayat
areas. They have also brought alcohol abuse and domestic violence onto
the agenda of political campaigns (Nambiar and Bandyopadhyay 2004).
But we also have instances of their passive participation. According to
a PRIA study of PRIs in six states, male family members who were previously
elected representatives of the panchayats often pushed women to
contest elections so that the seat of power could be retained within the
family. As a result, women behaved as mere token representatives, that is,
dummy candidates (PRIA 1999). When this does not happen, the elected
representatives become targets of character assassination. Their male colleagues
still treat them indifferently in the meetings. The bureaucracy,
too, is less responsive to them. Despite reservations, women from low-caste
groups seldom wield any real political power, given the strongly entrenched
notions of caste and gender hierarchy (Anandhi 2002; Niranjana 2002).
As gram sabha constituents, the participation of women has been almost
invisible. Appeals for an increased political participation of women
in gram sabhas generally overlook some ground realities, for instance,
the timings of gram sabha meetings, the settlement pattern of the village
and the long distances to be trekked, problems of quorum and procedures
adopted, the manipulation of discussions by dominant groups, patriarchal
snorms restricting the mobility of women outside the home, the crucial
loss of daily wages, illiteracy, and lack of awareness about the new system
of governance. These severely limiting factors often fuel cynicism amongst
women (Sharma 2004).
Despite an enabling environment, created by the legislations, women
have, by and large, been unable to be effective participants in local