Empowerment of women in Urban Local Governance through Participation.

                                       DR.Sujit Narayan Chattopadhyay.

The issue, empowerment of women, has recently become a widely discussed matter. It is also believed that today’s generation has aptly realized the need of empowering the women by opening the avenues of their legal and constitutional means of taking active part in constitutional as well as statutory bodies of the Government which are used to govern and administer the affairs of the society. Present society has accepted these accesses of women as their fundamental right. The actual goal is to reach at a desired point of social development, where the women would also be considered as responsible social member. So there should not be any discrimination of sex, in the question of eligibility for power and social responsibility. This movement of development of gender outlook and  mentality was first initiated in UNO in the year 1975, when the resolution was adopted establishing the right of participation and equality of women in all social affairs. After that all participating countries of UNO, began a new era by ensuring the legal right of participation for women to all policy administration and governance.

 The most interesting thing is that, women constitute nearly half of the total population not only in India but also in all most all the major States. Even most of the liberal and socialist countries have extended the right to vote and right to elect to this part of the society. And that has also been approved by the Constitution of the land. Thus the women have given the duel right in Politics: the right to vote and the right to contest in the election. These extensions of political rights have led the enhancement of their political and public life. Even the power and authority have been accepted by the Constitution of the land, the condition of Indian Women, at least in reality, is altogether different from its theoretical description. Still the sexual oppression and economic suppressions are the common story of Indian women. Still Indian women are mostly considered as voiceless segment of the population who survived for betterment of the men folk. There are six vital determinants to understand the exact position of Indian women.  These are,  a) sex ratio; b) participation in economic activities; c) availability of economic opportunities; d) availability of educational opportunities; e) political empowerment; f) availability of health facilities and normal sanitations necessary for women in general. Studies over 58 countries were made by “Global Gender Group” with the intention of making a report on the gender gap in different countries.  The report brought out the fact that despite heightened international awareness and commitment the gender gap has not yet eliminated in any those 58 countries. Only some Western countries have made some mechanical attempt of narrowing the gap.

To concentrate on India, we may found that Indian tradition and social myth placed women in the highest pedestal, but in reality, women of India are still the subject of worst form of social oppression and exclusion. 2001 census revealed that in the sex ratio India’s place is in lowest rung. The percentage of women literacy is 54.16% as against male literacy of 75.85%. Large numbers of women are belonged to the unorganized sector. Only 2.3% are in the administration or in management, 20.5% are professional and technical workers, all of whom collectively earn only 25% of the shared income. The picture of Political participation, even if there is reservation of women seat in all the representative bodies, is also bleak, above all only 15% of women folk are getting the chances of representing in the Political decision making process.

Our history of National Movement against colonial power depicts another picture. Women had a very inspiring role in the National movement. Women of all classes and walks of life, in large numbers voluntarily joined picketing, collecting donations, and courted arrest and were imprisoned in distant jail. After Independence, our makers of Constitution tried to include their contribution through constitutional guarantees like equal political right, and right to representation of women, also empowered the state to adopt some positive measures to eradicate the social, political and economic discrimination in favor of women. But incensed male dominancy and male competitiveness were the impediments of materializing those wishes and instruction of the makers of our Constitution. Our “constitution makers” also tried put an objective attempt to include the women power and endeavor into the Local self Government. Although we have witnessed a significant presence of women representation in Local Government, but their representation in the civic governing processes have so far been conspicuously low. They are representing there physically but not in the actual process of decision making machinery at the local level. This awful absence and insignificance in decision making of women from political process have naturally generated doubts about how to identify and integrate women’s social and economic needs and priorities in the process of development. There are some social and economic researchers who try to suggest that women-specific developmental programme and schemes will help them to empower their desired goal. But that too require a perfect understanding of demands and development of women for better understanding their own problems and impediments.

Participation in the management and governance of local bodies may of urban or rural, is an important aspect of rights and empowerment. The constitution has provided equal rights and responsibilities both to the men and women.  But physiological differences and the socially ascribed and determined roles of women, which are traditionally established, often restricted the women to get an easy and comfortable access to the social political and economic problems and resources both in urban sector as well as in rural sectors. Although the role and outward activities or scope of activities of women in urban sector is to a large extent differ from that of rural women. Even then we have witnessed in many cases that, well-being women of urban sector remained unrecognized or unsupported in most societies. As a result women in urban sector are still the worst victim of poor living and of basic urban services and facilities. It is often argued that the knowledge and sensibilities to social issues and needs of woman can more easily create the possibilities of sustainable urban development. They can also better represent the local urban need more effectively than men.  Field experiences of researchers have also appreciated that the direct involvement of women in urban governance may bring rich and sustainable economic, social and political dividends to the communities. If this experience is shared perfectly by the decision makers then the equitable development would also be ensured.

This hypothesis was taken seriously by the legislation. It has also been accepted that women’s eligibility stem from the experience they achieved from their inherent knowledge of home-management. Yet in India they are still in the position of disaggregated part of the urban society in the process of preparation of urban planning. In view of this the Legislature brought 74^th. Amendment in the year 1992, where attempt were made to extend the democracy to the daily life of the citizen and to create an environment for women to take part in the process of local self government. It also made an attempt to bring forward the women sector of urban society to the forefront of the city development. The amendment defines urban local bodies as institution of self-government and instrument of planning for economic development. Most importantly, it provides reservation of one-third of elected seats for women at local government level in urban areas. Even it also has made a provision of making one-third seats reserved for women to the post of Chairperson in the local bodies. The Constitution has also made necessary arrangement of representation for SC and ST Candidatures in the Local Bodies. The attempt was to bring a new force/crop from the grassroots level to the position of representation and leadership. This immediately made a new ways to the women to place them in the position of leadership in local bodies as Mayor/Chairperson/Councillors.

But the question is, how far this increasing participation of women has brought a change in perception of role and responsibilities among them. There we have got varies experience. In most cases we have seen that despite an increasing participation in the decision making process, the actual developmental role of women councilors still remains highly restricted due to the complex institutional and beauracratic web. Actually  various prevailing departmental barriers in developmental works ultimately provides little scope to the local bodies for their own planned development. Apart from that it has also been seen that women in general have been unable to collectively ush their gender interest in the local government mainly because of lack of necessary support from the male colleagues coupled with their won hesitation to come together cutting across the party lines to raise their issues.

It was further expected that Kolkatta would be much favorable place for women, in comparison to Mumbai, Chennai or Delhi because of its traditional consciousness and involvement with direct Politics. Least numerically the success has been ensured. The record shows that the women of this cities are more endowed with education, age, Political connection, and inherent activitism. But the unfortunate thing is that , recurring phenomenon of elite over representation and the rising number of inheritors in the successive municipal elections puts the democratic roots or urban governance to question. On the other hand our experience in Tamilnadu, Rajasthan Maharashtra, Karnataka shows that most of the women corporators are new to the world of Politics, they are unable to effectively participate in decision making given the complexities. This is mainly due to the lack of their proper educational exposure and skill to deal with some social problem effectively. Furthermore, non-availability of training and information coupled with the lack of a supportive working environment has been identified as their major stumbling blocks to their free activities.

Thus it can be concluded that the effect of reservation or promulgation of 74^th. Amendment was not comfortable and positive in every part of this country. The opportunities provided by the Amendment were mixed and different in different urban areas. The opportunities created by the Amendment were required to be supplemented by education, skill in handling the social situation and necessary political connection. In every cases the presence of women in the civil governance have been ensured by the Amendment but the effects of that were not equal in every part of the Country. Economic and Social independence can only bring the desired result of women empowerment in our Country. Some basic reasons can be identified, which play a vital role in preventing the process of women empowerment. These are: a) Lack of orientation/ training in managing the urban development; b) lack of education and knowledge of power and responsibility of a representative in the local government, especially because of paucity of organizational and political support; c) Lack of technical knowledge of handling the scheme, and of providing social benefits to the locality; d) Inadequate support from Municipal officials and gender discriminatory behavior of other associates.

To come out from this gender discrimination and other related technical and educational problem, a few steps can easily be taken by the Government to establish the basic aim of the Amendment. These may be: a) continuous training to empower the women with political, legal and social knowledge; b) The government may take special effort to promote and support the women’s collective efforts with its administrative power, so that the initiative of women may reach to the larger forum of civil society. For this the Government is required to create an atmosphere of continuous dialoging with women and with civil society; c) This will ultimately help to strengthen the power and confidence of women in handling the social and civic situation; d) Government should remember that only constitutional provision regarding reservation  of seats in the civic and constitutional bodies are not sufficient. These only increase the quantitative participation without changing the qualitative level of women representatives. Women are needed to be mobilized as a political force so as to challenge the oppression and male hegemonic forces. Our experiences show and suggest that periodic training orientation and sensitization can help women representatives perform their assigned function in a better way.