International Women’s Day has to attain more significance than merely be an occasion to send out wishes and cheers, or post comments on any social media forum. India ranks quite low in global surveys on gender equality. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, India was ranked at 140th among 156 countries, having dropped by 28 places from the previous year. It was also the third-worst performer in South Asia. For the overall progress of the country, women’s empowerment is essential, as it will do away with discriminatory practices and inequalities that may exist today. Without women’s empowerment there will be no gender equality.
Women’s empowerment is a fundamental right and not a gift to be bestowed. Gender discrimination does not enable society or the overall development of the State. While theoretically, there are a score of programmes for women’s empowerment at the government level, the results from these may not always show on the ground. The report quoted above is a reflection of how what is planned for enabling women is not yielding results. It shouldn’t remain that way and this Women’s Day should be the occasion to change this. If that doesn’t happen, it would be another opportunity lost, for during the rest of the year, little attention is paid to this.
If women’s empowerment is to be a reality and not just a talking point as it is turning out to be, then political parties in particular need to get their act together in this respect. Since it is the parties that form the policies when in government, it is they who should take the initiative. But, are they taking this seriously? The most glaring instance of how women are ignored, is the list of candidates for the February 14 elections that saw just 18 women in the fray out of 301 candidates, which is approximately 6 per cent of the total candidates in the fray. It is unbelievable that the many political parties found no more than 18 women that they could endorse as candidates for the polls. Futher, of these 18, a significant number were family members – wives and daughters – of persons also in the fray for the election. Few of them were women who were on the ballot on their own merit. If that is how the political parties in Goa intend to empower women, then there is a mountain to climb.
Yet, at the local government level there is 33 per cent reservation of seats for women at the village panchayat, municipal and Zilla panchayats. It would have been a natural corollary of this for at least some of these women to rise from the local governance to the next level that is the State Legislative Assembly. But it has not occurred – neither is the number of women in the Assembly increasing, nor are there a larger number of women candidates for the elections. Clearly empowerment through reservations at the local government level has not met its goal of enabling women in the political field.
The same parties that have not given adequate representation to women in their candidate list have, in their manifestos outlined programmes for women empowerment. Just how will they be able to deliver on this? Shouldn’t their efforts have started with fielding more women so that they could enable them better with their voice in the Legislative Assembly? This is the main issue here, that while theoretically they are ready to promise much, when it comes to putting all that into practice, it just doesn’t happen. This is not restricted to Goan politics, but is the case across all States, and further it is not only in politics, but could be occurring in more fields also. It has to change.
