Editorial
Women and elections
Their participation is as important as men's
THE leaders of a women's organisation have pointed out that the participation of women in the recently held city corporation and municipal polls was minimal, which once again proves that women still cannot vie equally with their male counterparts for important elected positions, thanks to a host of socio-economic reasons.
The role that women play in the overall electoral process, however, is quite significant. They take part in election rallies and meetings and perform their duty as voters with great enthusiasm. But their involvement is restricted to the field level only. The point will be made clear by the fact that there was not a single woman candidate for the position of mayor, which only bolstered the regrettable truth that gender disparity is still an area of major concern. The number of women seeking election as councillor was also very low.
Clearly, women are poorly placed to make any progress towards political empowerment. This is the picture that has emerged from the city and municipal polls overwhelmingly dominated by male candidates. But another point to be noted is that the number of women deployed as presiding or polling officers was also quite negligible. This shows that women are not getting the opportunity to conduct elections as government officials.
The women leaders have demanded that the political parties ensure 33 percent representation of women in the parties as per the declaration of the EC. This will obviously allow more women to get into politics -- the crucially important field of empowerment. Then again, the parties will have to come out of their traditional mode of thinking and nominate a substantially higher number of women candidates for JS and all local government elections.
The talk of women's empowerment will ever remain a meaningless expression of concern for the women lagging behind unless they are allowed to occupy decision making positions in important organisations. The city and municipal polls have given us a very poor score insofar as the issue of removing gender disparity is concerned. Creating space for deserving women in both public and private agencies is necessary to empower not only women but also society as a whole, which is now deprived of the services that women could render from various positions.
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