JOIN USPolitical parties which talk about women’s empowerment (through 33 per cent reservation) have not been fair to the fairer sex when it comes to electoral politics, which continues to be a male bastion in a predominantly patriarchal Rajasthan.
In six decades of electioneering, there has been no remarkable progress in the number of women getting elected to the state assembly.
Out of the 105 candidates announced by the ruling Congress for the upcoming assembly elections, only 12 women figure while the main Opposition BJP has fielded only 22 women candidates out of 176 declared. This constitutes hardly 11-12 per cent of the total number of seats.
In terms of women’s representation, the outgoing assembly could boast of the largest ever number of women being elected to the Assembly. The last assembly polls (2008) were significant as it saw the largest number of 154 women in the fray of whom 28 won, the highest number ever of women elected to the 200-member assembly - 13 each from the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party and two independents.
In the first election in 1952, Rajasthan voters rejected all the four women candidates who dared to contest. By 1957, people gradually began accepting the change by electing nine out of 21 contestants.
In terms of electoral divide, 1962 was better. It saw eight of the 15 women contestants emerging victorious. But from 1952 to 1967, the number of women elected did not even reach double digits. It touched 13 in 1972 and in 1985, 17 of the 45 contesting women got elected.
In four consecutive polls thereafter, despite an increased number of women in the fray, victory eluded the fairer sex. The major political parties - Congress and BJP – have not really paid serious attention towards encouraging women’s participation in state-level politics.
It is to the credit of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje that the number of women candidates in the BJP saw a marked improvement. As against eight BJP women candidates (Cong 16) in 1998 assembly polls, the number of women candidates jumped to 22 in 2003 (Cong 19) and it further increased to 32 in 2008 (Cong 21) after Raje took over the leadership of the party.
The state can claim credit for creating some outstanding women leaders. Former speaker of Rajasthan state assembly, Dr Sumitra Singh, won an unprecedented nine times out of 12 contests from Jhunjhunu, seven times in a row for Congress.
After being denied ticket, she left the Congress and won the 1998 election as an independent before joining BJP and scripting history by becoming the first woman speaker of Rajasthan assembly.