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Politics, governance and the other half

Staff Reporter

Women have
to prove themselves in governance, says Maharashtra’s first woman EC

Neela Satyanarayana

MUMBAI: The undermining of elected women representatives in local bodies by powerful patriarchal forces has to end and women in turn have to prove themselves in the art of governance, Neela Satyanarayana, Maharashtra’s first woman Election Commissioner, told The Hindu in an interview.

“A large number of women are associated with local self-government institutions. What we hear about women in government and semi-government offices, is that they are not as good as men, that they are proxies. I may get an opportunity to change this scene, to make women professional so nobody can say adverse things about them.”

Shot in the arm

Women’s participation in the political process received a shot in the arm after the introduction of 33 per cent reservation in panchayat raj institutions (PRIs) in 1993. In this, Maharashtra’s track record has been healthy.

This week the State notched up its performance with Ms. Satyanarayana’s appointment. There are 28,650 local bodies whose elections Ms. Satyanarayana will be in charge of.

Her constitutional position comes with a good amount of power. The number of local bodies is large and elections take place round the year.

From her 37 years of administrative experience, Ms. Satyanarayana, a retired civil servant, feels the appointment speaks of the confidence in women’s governing skills, instilled through able work.

Sign of confidence

“The system was never programmed for women. So I don’t blame it. The men had to take their time to adjust to the entry of women. They were unsure whether women could really deliver the results. I think it is a sign of the confidence built over time that the government thought of a woman Election Commissioner.”

Ms. Satyanarayana’s career is replete with examples of how women’s entry has effected changes. “During my tenure as additional chief secretary, Revenue, many women were recruited as Naiks, tehsildars and Deputy Collectors. They had to go into the interiors on work. But, there were no bathroom facilities. It was so ironical that the government offices had bathrooms for visitors but none for the women officers. I had to call an emergency meeting of commissioners and collectors to address the problem. The system has to get used to the fact that more and more women are coming in and women also have to prove that they are as good as or even better than men.”

Male-centric view

Having joined the IAS in 1972, Ms. Satyanarayana initially encountered a male-centric view of how an administrator should be. “Men would tell us, See how men take decisions. Rule with an iron hand. Why do you behave like a woman? However, I thought, one does not have to follow them blindly. As administrators, women should put their inherent strength to use.”

“I think compassion is a part of a woman’s personality. If you have compassion, you give a human face to the establishment. A common person comes to you because he/she has a problem. You need to see it as a human problem rather than treating his application as part of a file. Women combine the head and the heart. While taking decisions, they have the capacity to think from all angles. I am not saying men can’t do it; but it comes naturally to women.”

In positions of authority too, Ms. Satyanarayana found women to be vulnerable. In one instance, many, who inadvertently fell prey to manipulations, were jailed in corruption cases, some even along with their infants. “If this was happening to civil servants, imagine the condition in the villages. Women have a lot to balance with the pressures of work and home. Their networking is not as good as the men’s.”

Lacunae remain

While numbers look promising, lacunae remain. Ms. Satyanarayana feels training and confidence building measures can work. “Back in 1989, I got a call from a woman engineer. Her husband had thrown her out of the house. This is still a problem in the rural areas. My own opinion is that rural women have a lot of common sense. It is like the difference between being literate and being wise. But, they are bogged down by caste, religion and such other constraints. You have to make them confident by revealing their inner strength to them.”

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