Spark of hope

India needs to reform panchayati raj institutions, reserve seats in Parliament and legislative assemblies to create more women leaders like the new President Droupadi Murmu

- ZUMBISH

IN THE 30th year of panchayati raj, India got its first woman president from the adivasi community. But the rise of Droupadi Murmu from the position of a nagar panchayat councillor in Odisha to the Rashtrapati Bhavan does not tell the real story of women's leadership in India's panchayati raj institutions (PRIS).

India has 1.45 million female elected representatives in PRIS, the highest in the world. This impressive representation at the grassroot level of governance does not percolate to other levels of governance. In the current Parliament, the Rajya Sabha has only 12.24 per cent women representatives. In the Lok Sabha, the representation is nominally better at 14.44 per cent. Women make up an even smaller proportion of state legislative assemblies, accounting for an average of only 8 per cent of all elected members. While Nagaland and Mizoram do not have a single female member in their legislative assemblies, another 15 states/UTs have less than 8 per cent women representation.

"The process of decentralisation has provided representation, but representation does not necessarily lead to participation. It alone is not sufficient for women to exercise their roles," says Anshuman Karol, lead-governance and climate action, at Participatory Research In Asia (PRIA), a Delhi-based non-profit. Down To Earth spoke with five women politicians who began their careers in PRIS before moving on to legislative assemblies or Parliament, as well as several women leaders in PRIS, to understand why only a handful of them reach state and national levels. They all echoed Karol's sentiments.

ELECTED WITHOUT A SAY