Crushing blow for women power
George Iype in New Delhi
As the election campaign gathers momentum, there is considerable disquiet in one quiet quarter -- the 282 million women voters in the country.
Political parties, cutting across ideologies, are now assiduously wooing the huge chunk of the women electorate.
But India's apex National Commission for Women feels that the men in politics are 'hypocrites' when it comes to nominating women candidates to fight the poll.
"We thought the major political parties would field more women candidates after the hue and cry they made on the issue of reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures. But their sweet promises are all humbug,"
says NCW chairperson Mohini Giri.
"In the last Lok Sabha, there were 39 women members. But this time the number could go down," she told Rediff On The NeT, reasoning that no party has increased the share of seats for women for the ensuing election.
In the past month, Giri and major women's organisations have been making daily rounds of party offices in New Delhi. Their mission -- to coerce top leaders to field more women candidates.
"We have met every top politician from Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, BJP leaders L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress president Sitaram Kesri to the satraps of regional parties, pleading them to nominate more women," says Giri.
Women like Margaret Alva (Congress), Sushma Swaraj (BJP) and Renuka Choudhary (Telugu Desam Party) might have made it big in politics, but "we want more nominations from the marginalised women in society", she added.
But initial reports with the NCW are far from satisfactory. So far, the Congress has nominated 28 women candidates, the BJP 18 and the Janata Dal three. The apex women's body is now waiting for the complete list of candidates to be released. Once that is available, it will launch a major offensive against the political parties in the country.
With that in mind, Giri and her colleagues are now preparing 10 detailed questionnaires to be circulated among women voters across the country. These questionnaires are aimed at creating awareness among the women electorate as also at exposing the chauvinistic attitude of male politicians in India.
In the 1996 election, the Congress nominated only 49 women amongst its 530 candidates. Only 23 out of the BJP's 477 candidates were women. The Communist Party of India fielded only four women, though it contested 43 seats.
In that election, only 599 out of the 17,000 candidates were women. Of these, only 39 won the election.
To protest against the complete neglect of women during the election and to focus attention on the power of women, the NCW and a host of women's organisations like the All India Democratic Women's Association decided last week to field a woman candidate from the New Delhi constituency.
NCW-backed candidate Dr Ranjana Kumari, a social worker and general secretary of the Mahila Dakshaka Samiti, and Giri then approached both the Congress and the BJP leadership, urging them to withdraw their candidates from the constituency.
But both the BJP and Congress refused to pull out their candidates -- former Jammu and Kashmir governor Jagmohan and Congress general secretary R K Dhawan -- from the fray. Giri says only former prime minister V P Singh and three parties -- the Samata Party, the Janata Party and the Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party -- came forward to support Dr Kumari.
Finally, the NCW withdrew from the contest for one simple reason. "We did not have money even to print posters," says Giri, stating that the Election Commission's decision to increase the campaign amount to Rs 1.4 million per candidate "has dashed our hopes."
"It is sad that no political party is willing to spare even a single seat for a common woman candidate," says the NCW chairperson. "This election does not have a female face. It is a males's show."
While the NCW's protests against the male-dominated election process continue, the apex women's body doubts whether the 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill -- seeking to ensure 33.3 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures -- will ever become a reality.
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