Dr. Gitashree Deb
Volume-XIII, Issue-I, October 2024
Volume-XIII, Issue-I, October 2024 | ||
Published Online: 31.10.2024 | Page No: 112-117 | |||
Gender
Equality in Politics Through Women’s Political Participation At The Village
Level: A Case Study
Dr. Gitashree Deb, Assistant Professor, Department of Political
Science, Jagannath Singh College, Udharbond, Assam, India | |
Considering their population size, women are underrepresented in political leadership position throughout the world. In June, 2018 women represented only 23.8 percent of all parliament members in the world, rising up from 13.8 percent in 2000. Women are considered to be an integral part of the society as no society would develop without ensuring development of women. In the present day world, democratic form of government is the most popular and acceptable form of government and no democracy would be successful unless there is equality between citizens which comprises both men and women. Recognising this fact, many governments have taken active steps to encourage the participation of women in policy making, especially by establishing the system of reservation for women in parliament or in local governments. In this regard the 73rd amendment to the constitution was a landmark step in India which acknowledged 33 percent reservation of seats for women in the rural local self government or Panchayati Raj Institutions. As Indian women comprises almost 50 percent of total population and more than 70 percent of India’s total population reside in rural areas, the introduction of the system of reservation is viewed as a key to increase participation of women in the local decision making process and reduce gender inequalities in traditional rural societies. Therefore it is high time to judge the functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions in respect of women’s participation in local decision making process. This paper discusses how far reservation for women at Panchayat level politics helping women to participate actively in politics. | |
Keywords: Democracy, Participation, Equality, Panchayati Raj, Gender |