Popular Politics and Women Empowerment – A Tug of War
Posted on : February 23, 2022Author : Britya Gayen
Abstract
Women empowerment is inevitable across the globe through the creation of capability and entitlement. In post-colonial democracy like India, popular politics is inescapable. In our patriarchal society, major political activities are still controlled by men. But it’s true that living half of the world population behind the other half, it isn’t possible at all to give a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world to the future generations on the one hand and it isn’t possible to retain the political power for men denying completely the women voters in the democracy on the other hand. Therefore, in post-colonial democracy like India, a tug of war for empowering women will have been going on.
Empowering women is a multi-dimensional discussed issue across the globe. Having left half of the world population, no development can be taken place for the human race in any place of the planet, just as no bird with one wing can fly. Through the creation of capability and entitlement, one as a human-being can be empowered in real sense.(Collective Choice and Social Welfare — Amartya Sen, n.d.) Since half of the world population is women and women were historically backward on various grounds in patriarchal society, empowering women isn’t to be a short-term process, rather it may seem to be a never-ending process. So, it’s highly important issue all over the world, especially in the third world countries. My country is India and India is a post-colonial democracy. Not only that in the world it’s the largest democracy, where about one-fifth of the world women population is now living.
In the post-colonial democracy like India, there’re heterogenous groups of people in terms of class-interest, caste, religion, region, language, culture etc. On this ground, India is a glaring example of “Unity in Diversity”. But India’s politics is practically vote-based. So, the interests and sentiments of heterogenous groups of its population are included in a calculated way of creating vote-bank even at every level of political system. It may be said that to appease different groups of people, political leaders have taken shelter under the umbrella of popular politics, not only at the time of election but also in development planning. In the democratic country like India with multi-party system, there’s a high political competition for retaining the power or coming in power. As a result, every political party takes the path of popular politics and in the environment of political competition, the common people get direct benefits from the populist policies taken by the government. According to Partha Chatterjee, popular politics doesn’t refer to any particular institutional form or process of politics; much of such politics is conditioned by the functions and activities of modern governmental system. These expectations and activities produce certain relations between government and populations. In fact, those relations shape the popular politics. Therefore, in the concept of popular politics, there’s a conflict between the universal ideal of civic nationalism based on individual freedoms and equal rights irrespective of religion, race, language or culture and the particular demands of cultural identity, which call for the differential treatment of particular groups on grounds of vulnerability or backwardness or historical injustice or any other reasons. So, democracy should be treated as the politics of the governed. Therefore, popular politics is inescapable in post-colonial democracy like India.(Chatterjee, 2004, 2011)
Poverty was an acute problem in post-colonial democracy like India. It’s the pivotal cause of any other social problem. Thus, since its independence India has given emphasis on eradication of poverty. But in our patriarchal society, not only the developing countries but also the developed countries have realised that it will not be possible at all to give a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world to the future generations, having left women – the half of the world population behind the other half. On this ground, in the Fourth World Women Conference-1995, the women empowerment as a global agenda was taken up.(Vereinte Nationen, 1996) It creates not only an awareness of women all over the world, but also an international pressure on the developing countries like India for empowering women. In fact, at the starting point of the 21st century’s journey, the post-colonial democracy like India has adopted various schemes for empowering women and uplifting girl-child not only with domestic funds, but also with aid of World Bank; although it passed on December,1992, 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments which came into force in 1993 to provide constitutional status to the local governments (Panchayats and Municipalities) in rural and urban India, with at least one-third of the total number of seats to be reserved for women.(Panchayati Raj System in Independent India.Pdf, n.d.) It was the first step of political empowerment of women in India.
In both Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-2000 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-2015, empowering women has been recognised as a goal. MDGs galvanized a global campaign from 2000-2015 to end poverty and to achieve gender equality in its various dimensions. Yet while the MDGs only applied to developing countries, the SDGs will apply universally to all member states of United Nations.(“Millennium Development Goals – MDGs,” n.d.; THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development, n.d.) As a result, from the global point of view, the post-colonial democracies like India have been introducing various schemes that focus on women and aim to provide them with their due social dignity and ensure ways of earning. As the past of Indian society is filled with stances of gender inequality, the government has come forward to bring equality at every level, empower women and uplift girl-child.
All over India, a lot of schemes for upliftment of girl-child and empowerment of women is now implemented. There’re more than 450 schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Ladli Laxmi Yojna, Kanyashree Prakalpa, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojna, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojna, Laxmi Bhandar, Rashtriya Mahila Kosh etc. All these schemes have been taken by the Central and State Governments during the last decade.(586+ Govt. Schemes for Women in India – Complete List of Women Welfare Schemes by Central & State Governments, 2022) Impact of various schemes taken with domestic funds and international aid or soft loans on empowering women and upliftment of girl-child will be clear if we observe the Gender Inequality Index (GII) of the 2010 and 2020 shown in the bar-chart below:
Source: Compilation and computation of data as per UNDP – Human Development Reports.
The chart shows that during the period from 2010 to 2020, the GII has been reduced from 0.748 to 0.488. It indicates that women in the dimensions of reproductive health, empowerment – political participation and higher education attainment, and labour market participation have been improved, i.e., women empowerment in terms of capability and entitlement has shown positive sign.(Gender Inequality Index (GII) | Human Development Reports, n.d.)
Women are guaranteed equality under the Constitution of India, but still legal protection has little effect in the face of prevailing patriarchal traditions. Even today women lack power to decide whom they will marry and are often married off before they reach at the age of 18. In fact, women even in the 21st century’s democracy face a lot of challenges like domestic violence, sexual harassment, violence against women etc, especially in third world countries. Even when a woman contest in election for the country’s top post, she is attacked by men in many ways in election campaign. It’s seen not only in developing country’s democracy, but in developed country’s democracy as well.
Besides, popular politics in post-colonial democracy devalues the quality of governance, which, in turn, devalues the quality of democracy and creates ample scope of corruption. But popular politics can be denied in no way in post-colonial democracy like India on one hand and empowering women is inevitable across the globe in patriarchal society on the other hand. Till today, lion’s share of political power is in the hands of men all over the world irrespective of developing and developed world. Perhaps, no country isn’t prepared to leave 50% of total seats for women at all levels of political power. Since half of the total voters in post-colonial democratic country like India is women, the political authority captured by men in patriarchal society for retaining the power is compelled to take shelter under popular politics for empowering women and uplifting girl-child so-that the women’s vote-bank can be favourable for the concerned authority. Therefore, it can be concluded in a nutshell that following the theory of demand polity and command polity, a tug of war between popular politics and women empowerment will have been going on in post-colonial democracy like India.(Rudolph & Rudolph, 1987)
Britya Gayen
Intern, Asia in Global Affairs
The opinions expressed within the content are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Asia in Global Affairs.
References
586+ Govt. Schemes for Women in India—Complete List of Women Welfare Schemes by Central & State Governments. (2022, January 18). https://sarkariyojana.com/list-government-women-welfare-schemes/
Chatterjee, P. (2004). The politics of the governed: Reflections on popular politics in most of the world. Columbia University Press.
Chatterjee, P. (2011). Lineages of political society: Studies in postcolonial democracy. Columbia University Press.
Collective Choice and Social Welfare—Amartya Sen. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674919211
Gender Inequality Index (GII) | Human Development Reports. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2021, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii
Millennium Development Goals—MDGs. (n.d.). Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.mdgmonitor.org/millennium-development-goals/
Panchayati Raj System in Independent India.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2022, from http://www.pbrdp.gov.in/documents/6205745/98348119/Panchayati%20Raj%20System%20in%20Independent%20India.pdf
Rudolph, L. I., & Rudolph, S. H. (1987). In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State. University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo5972167.html
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Vereinte Nationen (Ed.). (1996). Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women: Beijing, 4 – 15 September 1995.
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