WHY NO MORE INDIRAS AND PRATIBHAS IN INDIAN POLITICS?

Have you ever wondered why did India happen to have just one female Prime Minister and one female President so far till date? Of course, the parliament isn't doing pretty well either in terms of the numbers. An analysis from the wire in 2020 suggested how merely 13% women parliamentarians are there in India. And of course at the higher positions the number reduces even more. While the number crosses 44% in the local legislature it accounts for mere 9% in the cabinet.

WHY IS THAT SO...

ARE WOMEN NOT TAKING UP POLITICS

ARE WOMEN NOT READY TO ENTER BECAUSE OF SOCIETAL PRESSURE

ARE WOMEN NOT ALLOWED TO COMPETE WITH THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS EQUALLY

ARE RESERVATIONS FOR WOMEN IN POLITICS GENUINELY REQUIRED

WHAT IF THE SITUATION REMAINS THE SAME EVEN AFTER RESERVATIONS ?

Lets take a look at some of the possible analogies to all such questions:

Its quite interesting to note that how in 1990 UN's Economic and Social Council endorsed a target of 30 per cent women in decision-making positions in the world by 1995. This target was far from being met by 1995, when only 10 per cent of the world’s parliamentarians were women. Today, around 25.5 per cent of the world’s parliamentarians are women , still not exactly the target of 30 per cent has been met. This records for the fact that most nations have the same picture as that of India.

So what is stopping women from entering politics .Well, from ages Leadership and higher rank roles especially which account for the "dirty politics" tactics in the male dominated field have always been considered dangerous and unsafe for women by their families. Even if they manage to enter ,they are subject to derogatory comments on their appearance, dressing style and what not . In other words, the sexist society cannot afford to have a woman at the highest positions governing them and making laws and policies for everyone to abide by. Also, even if they perform well and are more sincere towards societal problems and have the ability to know and address them even better still they are not allotted many party tickets by most of the parties in general.

From the 8040 candidates , only 716 who contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were women. And out of these merely 78 won. If we specifically talk about the national parties such as BJP and Congress then out of 303 seats the BJP won, only 42 women candidates got elected on record and Congress merely 6 out of 52. The parties really need to do a lot more . The main issue goes with the allotment of tickets for the seats itself. Women are denied seat allotment in major regions. Only the areas where parties are either quite hopeless about winning or are extremely sure about winning , only there they give women reservations while ticket allotment.

RECENT CASE, the Congress giving 40% reservation to women candidates in UP. The basic analogy is not who provides how much reservation but the root cause is why the ticket allotment is so unfair. The caste politics always plays a key role in this scenario. Parties tend to play the religion card on the other hand.

It is high time that the parties understand the importance of having a fair ticket allotment criteria, more women candidates, equals to more people representing the 50% of the population that is being addressed merely by 13-14% women right now. Also, if Panchayats are doing much better with more female counterparts then surely the same can go for the National Legislatures as well.

The 56 inches chest needs to be broaden up more for equality and fair means for both men and women (especially for women) in politics.

Still India is far away from getting more Indiras and Pratibhas. Change needs to start from their homes itself. Smaller institutions like schools ,colleges ,universities should have more women leaders who would finally be encouraged to become future leaders of the country in politics.