PANJIM: March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day. They day has been celebrated from the late 70s. But are women really liberated today? Have they been able to break the glass ceiling? Herald Media asked men, “Are women really liberated in politics or are men ruling from behind the scenes?”
Now this cannot be a general scenario. There are ladies, especially at the Assembly level, Parliament level, who are quite independent. They may pretend to act that they are controlled by their husbands, but I believe that they have a mind of their own where they can tell their husbands that these things are this way and they would not just bend to anything. The maximum I think if money is to be collected, they would leave to the men folk, but the decision would be theirs, this is what I know. Because if anyone will say that women will agree to a situation where they will allow a deal to take place, yes. If you take the history of Goa’s Assembly, I’m very convinced that women are more if not equally corruption when in positions of power.
Trajano D’Mello Political Commentator
Politically there has been a women’s reservation bill which has been passed where 33% reservations were given to women. But is this a hypocrisy or is this a manipulation. We have seen in Goa about women legislators, they do not have the full authority. We have seen in the past where a chief minister has told a minister, to shut your mouth. The minister was told you have Portuguese mentality. In this way, we can say that women politicians do not have independence. We need strong women leadership. Such women’s leadership should be encouraged in politics so that we have better governance and a better political system.
Olencio Simoes Social Activist
Women right from the panchayat level are controlled by men. Take the example of Sancoale where there is a woman sarpanch. But that lady sarpanch is like a puppet, like a doll. She is being remote controlled by men around her. Either the deputy sarpanch or the panchas who have political power. At the Zilla level in Sancoale, the MLA Anton Vas, his wife is a Zilla Member. We don’t even know whether she is existing in political circles at all. Most of the decisions are controlled by Anton Vas himself. At the Assembly level let us consider constituencies where husband and wife are MLAs. In this case all the decisions in terms of politics are controlled by their husbands. Complete control is with men. Women on their own have no control. Politically they have not been liberated at all.
Anthony D’Silva Social Activist