The many ways to increase women's presence in politics

Just as MK Stalin, the chief minister (CM) of Tamil Nadu, organised a conclave of political leaders to discuss the potential impact of delimitation on south Indian states, Karnataka's deputy CM DK Shivakumar has donned another hat of worry.

- Janaki Nair

Speaking to the three women legislators in the state assembly, he asked them to prepare and train a cohort of women to take their place in the legislatures and Parliament, should reservations for women become a reality.

This could just be the shrewd calculations of a man who has indeed rebuilt the Congress party in Karnataka and steered it to victory when it was out of power.

But there is a delicious irony to the deputy CM's concern. With just 1% of women in the current legislature, Karnataka is at the rank bottom of the list of Indian states, led, ironically, by Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal, that have emplaced more women in politics (between 12% and 14%).

But the deeper irony is his logic (as indeed the logic of most political parties, including the BJP, which loudly claimed credit for passing that postdated cheque on women's reservations). By this logic, major political parties will wait until the fielding of woman candidates is mandated for all parties. In short, it treats women's reservations as a liability that must be inflicted on all parties before any softening of the masculine hold on all levels of politics can begin.