A bigger role in decision making

Women in large parts of India are usually responsible for meeting food, water and energy needs of household and small communities but more in times of conflict such as ethnic violence or natural crises like floods, landslides or droughts. It is seen that they play a critical role in the use and management of natural resources and household care. “Care Giving” is what women are believed to be born with, and therefore expected to perform accordingly.

They, however, remain largely excluded from owning land, benefiting from resource wealth or participating in decision making in different aspects of governance or even in resource management. This exclusion leads to deep schisms in living standards of a society, without the powerful realising that a gender-balanced opinion and decision making over the sharing of resources equitably, among men and women, could lead to better conditions and perhaps less acrimony. Thus, women’s role inside and outside work have a great potential if political decision making and access to governance are granted to them as a matter of practice rather than an exception, at the family, community and state level.

The question of women’s empowerment is critical if we go deeper into women’s position within the family, the society and the state. They are dissociated from the power structures, which is evident in all these levels. Such are the patriarchal norms in our society which have led to denial of opportunities to women, even if we go by the constitutional standards of equal rights. Even well intended welfare schemes meant for rural development may not be realised if the bureaucracy, at the local level, hampers easy access to such programmes to women because of distrust, suspicion or attitudinal prejudices against the “beneficiaries”. This perpetuates poverty, violence and keeps women in terribly disadvantaged positions. 

There is a general belief that women from the north-east and other tribal communities fare better in terms of their mobility and economic opportunities. Would this mean that they also play a stronger role in local governance of the Dorbars of Meghalaya or the Village Councils of Nagaland? The answer, unfortunately, is no, and their vulnerabilities are best visible within their homes where they are not able to voice an opinion nor desist from an act of abuse. It is quite the same in the case of their work as agriculture producers where none of their views make a dent in the entire discourse of village meetings that relate to critical issues of their rural economy, the use of seeds, water-storage techniques and harvesting strategies.

Political empowerment

Thus, while the draft National Policy for Women is inclusive and has significant priority areas, the category on governance and decision making needs to be more forceful in terms of women’s role, both within and outside their homes. It has to have unequivocal mention of women agro-producers, weavers, caregivers because they are upholding the rural economy in more than one way, if we look at the exodus of men going into cities for work.

India ostensibly performs well on women’s political empowerment, measured by numbers of women in ministerial positions, and past years of women heads of state. And yet women occupy just 66 seats in the 543 member Lok Sabha, which is a mere 12%. The scenario for women MLAs, across all state Assemblies, is not encouraging with the national average being a sorry 9%. Ironically, it is nil in Nagaland and the reason is seen in their customary laws that disallow women to be a part of the electoral process, backed by Article 371-A of our Constitution. The draft policy must mention this and find ways of seeking an amendment to this Article.

On another note, the draft, which mentions an increase of women in trade unions and political parties, must insist on exposure or capacity building to be given to women. This should include women to take a deeper look at the political manifestos of parties which normally emphasises on their empowerment. That brings us to yet another issue of reservation which the government must pass as it is bound to narrow down the gender-gap in policy implementation and keep exclusionary factors of governance away from women.

Should this happen, the policy will go a long way in opening new vistas for women at the grassroots to enter governance in community-led committees such as village defence parties, block-level vigilance and monitoring committees, village health, sanitation and nutrition committees, autonomous councils, social audit committees, MNREGA, village education committees, social justice committees and peace committees, to name a few.

(The writer is a board member, North East Network, Guwahati)