Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s recent directive to the party to ensure selection of a significant number of women to the upcoming Lok Sabha polls seems to have spurred more women to seek ticket. The aspiration, however, may be rooted more in idealism than electoral history.
Data from the past four decades show that the Congress, much like other political parties, has an abysmal record when it comes to women candidates in the parliamentary polls.
The numbers
Only 5.8% of all the candidates given ticket by the Congress in the 11 general elections (excluding bypolls) since 1977 have been women.
A majority of them are people with deep political connections: from Sonia Gandhi in 1999 from Ballari, Margaret Alva and Manorama Madhwaraj, and even D.K. Taradevi, whose husband was known to be close to the former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi.
Other parties too lag in terms of women’s representation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has given just 3.8% of its ticket to women, while the Janata Dal (Secular), the current alliance partner of the Congress, has just nine women of the 101 candidates.
Not enough leaders?
The oft-given excuse for this is that political parties “don’t find enough women leaders”. However, Tara Krishnaswamy, who started Shakti, a non-partisan initiative for political empowerment of women, said this argument was rooted more in patriarchy than statistical fact.
While the major parties in the State have fielded just 37 women, a further 143 women have sought to further their Lok Sabha ambitions as Independents or in smaller parties with little chance of winning.
“Many of these women are those who stand as rebel candidates because they’ve been denied ticket by major parties. Who decides the ticket after all? It is nearly always an all-male committee, which carries with it misogynistic notions prevalent in society that decides ticket distribution,” she said.
Even if a woman does come from the grass roots, opportunities are limited. Apart from a nearly toothless women’s wing within parties, women are not selected for posts of general secretary or vice-president, while, within governments, women are not given administrative portfolios of Finance or Home or other major departments, said Ms. Krishnaswamy.
“There is no sharing of power with women. And for women, there is no opportunity to expand their influence,” she said.
Ground reality
C. Motamma, a veteran Congress leader who rose up the party’s ranks to win the Assembly elections thrice, said societal discrimination follows women in politics, particularly in perceptions of handling the “roughness” — money, muscle and party workers — of election campaigns.
“Often, it is pointed out that male politicians have a good relationship with party workers: they eat and drink with them, stay in their houses till late in the night. There are limitations for women to do all this. For men, if this behaviour is a qualification, for women, it is immediate disqualification as rumours then start to spread questioning her character,” she said.
While a “women’s vote bank” could push for more women candidates, she believes this is still decades away from realisation.
“The awareness of women voting independently from their husbands, fathers or brothers is a long way away. Until that happens, only a women’s reservation Bill can ensure that parties compulsorily field women,” she said.
