The
73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments enacted in 1993
opened a new vista in women's journey towards empowerment; for they paved the
way for assured entry of women in grassroots governance through 33 per cent
reservation for them in Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs). West Bengal has the
unique and unbroken record of holding Panchayat elections at the stipulated 5-year intervals since
1978. PRIs in the state have a 3-tiered structure, with the basic unit, the Gram
Panchayat (GP) serving 10-12 villages. The next tier, the Panchayat Samiti (PS)
serves about 100 villages and there is an apex body, the Zilla Parishad (ZP) in each district, its chairperson having the status of a state minister.
Till 1992, elected women members in Gram Panchayats in the state constituted
less than one per cent of total representatives. But the picture has changed dramatically since 1993 when women were elected to the reserved
constituencies of the GPs for the first time. Corresponding one-third
reservation for women in Municipalities, Notified Areas and Municipal
Corporations followed soon after. Reservation for women as office -bearers in
the PRIs was introduced in the Panchayat elections of 1998.The relative position
of women members in the Panchayat bodies in 1998 is shown in Table P 1 while
Table P 2 shows that of the women office-bearers at different levels. It will be
seen that in almost all instances the share of women members goes beyond the
statutory 33 per cent., there being a woman Sabhadhipati (chairperson of ZP) in
40 per cent ofZPs. West Bengal's record compares favorably with the situation
obtaining in other states of India, except perhaps Karnataka , where women's
share in GP seats was more than 43 per cent and in PSs and ZPs, about 40 and 37
per cent respectively During the 1990s, the average percentage of women members in PRIs ( with respect to nine states) was about 27 per cent .[i]
Table
P 1 : Women members in PRIs in West Bengal : 1998
PRI |
Area
of work |
Total
members |
Woman
members |
SC
women |
ST
Women |
No.
of PRI |
GP |
10-12 villages |
49199 |
36 % |
18% |
7% |
3227 |
PS |
Block of app.115 villages |
8515 |
35% |
17% |
7% |
329 |
ZP |
District |
716 |
34% |
17% |
7% |
16 |
Source :Maitreesh Ghatak and Maitreya Ghatak, "
Recent Reforms in West Bengal : Towards Greater Participatory Governance
?", EPW, 1 May 2002, p.47.
P
2 : Women members as office-bearers in PRIs in West Bengal : 1998
GP
Pradhan GP
Upa-Pradhan Sabhapati
: PS Upa-Sabhapati
:PS Sabhadhipati
: ZP Sahakari " : ZP |
SC women |
ST women |
General
category women |
All
women |
All
seats |
%
held by women |
298 |
94 |
734 |
1120 |
3360 |
33.6 |
|
269 |
82 |
392 |
713 |
3360 |
21.2 |
|
28 |
14 |
73 |
115 |
333 |
34.5 |
|
31 |
8 |
|
74 |
333 |
22.2 |
|
2 |
- |
5 |
7 |
17 |
41.2 |
|
1 |
- |
5 |
6 |
17 |
35.3 |
Source : Ganashakti,
5 November2003, p.5.
Certain encouraging trends can be noted in the evolving
PRI structure and composition in West Bengal. First, there is growing
participation of women belonging to weaker sections of society such as scheduled
castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST). In 1998, for example, SC women comprised
nearly 30 per cent of all women representatives in Gram Panchayats, Panchayat
Samitis and Zilla Parishads. [ii] Secondly, all-women
Panchayats have also emerged and working successfully- such as the Kultikari
Gram Panchayat in Medinipur district. Thirdly, it is often found that as
compared to their male compatriots, women members of GPs take a more active
interest in essential developmental work such as expansion of literacy and
convenient access to drinking water. [iii]
It has further been observed , that in West Bengal, women representatives are
becoming more self-reliant and by and large they do not need to function as
'proxy members'. But .it is also a fact that .women panchayat members are not
always given equal status with their male counterparts. They are considered
'less equal' than the male representatives and hence, they are seldom given
responsibility of work considered
to be important by the PRIs and the
chairpersons (karmadhyksha)of the
important standing committees handling substantial funds are almost always men [iv].One
study found that women members of
these committed less than one-fifth of total members though women account for
one-third of total PRI members. [v] The relative exclusion of women in decision-making seems to be a common feature
in other spheres of the political life of the state and women are also hardly
visible in the high level decision
making bodies of political parties in the state, in common with the rest of
India. According to information collected by the West Bengal Commission for
Women, a number of political parties (including the Forward Block, the Communist
Party of India (CPI) and the
Bharatiya Janata Party )had only a single woman in their state level decision
making units, while the CPI-M had 8 in a total of 28.
Two other issues are comparatively low levels of
education of women panchayat members and the
paucity of women's presence in the GP meetings. A recent study of nine
Panchayats in Birbhum district found
that of the 64 women surveyed in
1997, 24 were just literate and four could only sign their names, apart from 12
who had completed primary education. However, this group also included 9 who had
passed School Final. The study mentioned above
also found that 25 per cent of each of general category and SC members,
65 per cent of ST members and 50 per cent of Muslim members attended less than
half of the meetings held. (Panchayat meetings were held once a month from 1 to 4 pm and during the survey period each
member received Rs. 20 for attending meetings) It is necessary that we pay
attention to the reasons stated by
the women for irregular attendance,
for these reflect a common pattern and need to be addressed at appropriate
levels. (i) Shortage of time: Household
chores and rearing of children took up so much time that it was not possible for
most women to attend meetings regularly .(ii) Loss
of a day's wages : since a large number of women members worked as
agricultural labourers or daily wage earners, they had to sacrifice a day's
earnings; moreover, in most cases husbands or adult sons had to escort them to
Panchayat offices, incurring additional loss of earnings. (iii)
Poor transport facilities : one-third
of the women surveyed had to walk more than 3 km either to reach a bus stop or
the meeting venue as villages were not well connected by road (iv) Superstition:
In some household it was still considered inauspicious for women to be
involved in Panchayat activities.
There is no doubt that with growing awareness among women in the PRIs and growing emphasis on appropriate training for this group through government and non-government agencies, most of them will duly enhance their inherent skills and continue to use them as effective community leaders . As the West Bengal Human Development Report observes, "The participation of women in panchayats tends to have dynamic effects on the social and political empowerment of women in general … More significantly, the greater presence and participation of women in public life has powerful effects of the situation of women in local society generally. There are numerous examples of how local women leaders have emerged through this process , transforming their own lives and those of the society around them.."[vi] It has to be emphasised here that creation of political spaces for women is not an end in itself but only a necessary step towards an egalitarian polity and society.
[i] GOI, A Statistical Profile of Women in India -1997, March 2001, p.5.
[ii] West Bengal Commission for Women (WBCW), Voice of Women, March 2001.
[iii] Raghavendra Chattopadhay , Esther Dunflo, "Impact of Reservation in Panchayati Raj, : Evidence from a Nationwide Randomised Survey", EPW, 28 February 2004,p. 983.
[iv] Buddhadeb Ghosh, "Gender and governance in the eastern Indian states " (mimeo), 2000.
[v] Arabinda Ghosh, "Inside-Outside Dichotomy in Panchayati Raj Institutions in West Bengal', The Administrator, October-December 1997.