In 2019, we need politics that does not dominate and bully women

Mains Paper 3: Society
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Role of women in Indian parliament as well as Indian Society

Context

•  In the matter of women’s actual political representation in Parliament, India ranks 151 globally among 190 countries.
•  Among its eight South Asian neighbors’, India ranks below Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.

Role of women in Indian politics

•  According to the Inter-Parliamentary Forum, as of 2014, India’s women occupied less than 12 per cent seats both in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
•  Even in the state and national decision-making bodies, women remain hugely underrepresented.
•  The present dispensation has long paraded the fact that it has handed two of the most important portfolios to women defence and external affairs.
•  Fact is, a proper and active representation matters to all marginalised groups, including women who form the numerically-largest chunk.
•  India Spend, for example, reports that in Tamil Nadu, women in panchayats, compared to their male counterparts, were found to have disbursed 48 per cent more public funds in building roads and improving access.

Four interconnected facets in politics:

•  One, women as an elected group are subordinate to the party, which is mostly or entirely male.
•  Two, women are subordinated because of biology.
•  Three, women’s primary role is to raise families and any large-scale induction of women in active politics will mean the end of home life as India has known it.
•  Four, all women share the same biology so they must be treated as a group, not addressed as individuals.

Conclusion

•  In 2019, we need to move beyond reflections about family relationships and motherhood and women’s inalienable duties to society.
•  Till we do that, a politics that does not dominate and bully women will remain as difficult to envision as a society in which men can no longer dominate and bully women verbally, physically, politically or economically.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) Consider the following statements about the evolution of civil service during the British rule:
1. Limited competition for recruitment of civil servants was introduced by the Charter Act of 1833.
2. The Charter Act of 1853 made the Indians eligible to compete for the Covenanted Civil Service.
3. Statutory Civil Service was introduced by Lord Lytton to recruit Indians for higher posts through nomination.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 3
(d) None

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) To increase women empowerment, women participation in parliament is important. Comment.