JOIN USPolitical empowerment of women in India poor: UNDP
It will take more than 50 years for countries like India to achieve gender balance in politics if the women’s participation in Parliaments remains at the current pace, according to the United Nations’ report.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released this week offers six-point action plan that includes a whole range of structural changes in the electoral politics to bridge the gender gap. It strongly pleads quota for women in Parliament.
The action plan recommended by the report includes constitutional reforms, changes in the pattern of electoral campaign and its financing, provision of reservation ofseats, change in party selection rules, capacity building on policy and programs and gender sensitive rules in elected bodies.
The UNDP report, ‘Gender Equality in Elected Office in Asia-Pacific: Six Actions to Expand Women’s Empowerment’, says that “globally, women hold slightly less than 20 per cent of seats in Parliament. In Asia-Pacific, just over 18 per cent of all members of national Parliaments are women.”
“The leading countries in the region for women’s membership in Parliament are New Zealand and Nepal, where women are one-third of all members of Parliament. Women are more than one-quarter of parliamentarians in Afghanistan, Australia, Laos, Timor-Leste and Vietnam,” says the report.
LS ranks 105th
India is far below these countries with 11 per cent women in the Lower House.
“Despite frequent attempts to introduce a similar policy of reserved seats for the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the national Parliament , these initiatives have repeatedly failed.
With 60 women members of Parliament out of 545 (11 per cent), nationally, India’s Lower House ranks only 105th worldwide,” says the report.“Among the Asia-Pacific countries with the highest proportions of women in Parliament in 2010, most had constitutional, legal or party quotas. By contrast, among the 20 Asia-Pacific countries lagging behind in growth, none had implemented quotas,” says the report.
Gender balance
“Due to the implementation of reserved seats, women do better in sub-national than national elections in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh”, the report pointed out. With 37 per cent of members at rural and district bodies, India has achieved a better gender balance at sub-national level. However, the report has lauded the “consequences for including women in India” in local bodies. It underlines its role in “altering policy priorities”.
“Hence, studies have reported the significance of gender for policy outcomes; in particular, village councils headed by women invested more in public infrastructure concerning provision of clean water, while village councils headed by men invested more in job provisions,” says the report.