Political parties responsible for not giving women larger role in politics
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is the best living example of what a woman can achieve in the field of politics if she sets her mind to it. If one were to look back then Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the first woman prime minister in the world, Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir of Israel stand out as strong women leaders. These women are exceptions in a field dominated by men. As Goa prepares to go to the polls on February 4, one aspect of candidate selection that stands out is that the ruling party, the BJP, has only one woman candidate, while the Congress has three, not a glorious figure. The Aam Aadmi party has five, which again is better than the others but does not compare well with the number of women voters on the electoral list. The present Assembly has only one woman MLA and thankfully, she is a minister. The previous Assembly also had one woman MLA. Why are women so under-represented in Goa, which is considered progressive?
The BJP top brass, with rare honesty stated that candidates are selected on the basis of their ability to win. Most political parties undertake a similar exercise, even though they might not want to admit it in public. You fight an election to win, not make a point. Perhaps, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was not too far away from the truth when he said that women lag behind in politics even though they have made a mark in other fields of endeavour. Women have been extended the benefit of reservation for panchayat, municipal and zilla panchayat elections. Ideally this arrangement should have thrown up more candidates for the Assembly elections, but this has not happened. Consequently, Goa sits far behind the trend in the Lok Sabha.
Although the Lok Sabha has shown an upward trend in the number of women getting elected, the final figure is not very promising. The first election in 1951 witnessed the election of 22 women candidates while the current Lok Sabha has 66 women MPs, a three-fold increase. In terms of percentages, the quantum of women elected went up from 5 per cent in 1951 to 12.2 per cent in 2014. Also, the number of women contesting the election has gone up 15-fold from 45 in 1957 to 668. Where women beat men is in success rate which is three percentage points higher. The figures show that women are coming forward to take on roles in politics, but at a rate slower than desired. It was this slow rate that prompted the H D Deve Gowda government to introduce a bill to give 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament in 1996. Twenty years later it remains a contentious issue.
Goa is clearly behind the curve. Having one woman in the Assembly reflects poorly on political parties who must shoulder the blame for not giving women larger roles to play in politics.
