Abstract
This study explores the experiences of women as voters and political representatives at the local level. It includes women’s stories which capture the challenges they faced, their resistance and aspiration for change. The study also looks at men’s perception of women’s political participation. The study uses a feminist perspective with qualitative methods. Tools such as in-depth interview, focus group discussions and observations were used to gather data and information.
Introduction
The 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments in 1993 granted 33% reservation for women at the level of local governance, marking the entry of women into Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Once these amendments came into force, there was a nationwide debate on women’s exclusion from politics and their institutional and social marginalisation.
Many factors contribute to low numbers of women in panchayat institutions. For instance, the population policy of the ‘Two Child Norm’ (1991) mandated that couples should have only two children and that they would be ineligible to stand for election or qualify for government schemes, if they did not limit their families. This policy was adopted in Haryana along with the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, but later in 2006 this norm was abolished by the Haryana Government when it became clear that it had a bearing on the declining sex ratio of women in the state (son preference and the two-child norm combining to accelerate female foeticide and infanticide). Until then, that is, before 2006, many women (as well as men) were rendered ineligible for elections as they usually had more than two children (Buch, 2005; Jayal, 2006; Rao, 2003). More recently, the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act (2015) added new eligibility criteria to contest elections: candidates must have minimum educational qualifications, toilet facilities at home and should have paid their electricity bills. Many candidates, especially women from the scheduled castes (SCs), are affected severely by such rules because they do not, in the first place, have the mandatory educational qualifications (Baxi, 2016; Kirti, 2016). The greatest hindrance of course to women’s participation was and continues to be the time-consuming role of women in the domestic sphere. In addition to household work including care work, lack of mobility, education and information on issues and awareness inhibit women’s confidence and participation in local governance. To top it all, even if elected women are very often used as proxies by their husband or other male relatives who exercise the powers of the office in their place (Aeijaz, 2001; Buch, 2010; Jayal, 2006; Vijayakumari and Rao, 2014 Sekhon, 2006;).
Some studies show that despite these barriers, some women emerge as effective leaders but this is possible mainly with the support of family, community, panchayat members or government officials. ‘But, what one sees in these local bodies today is public patriarchy whereby the women are included but not allowed to participate and their work is consistently undervalued’ (Buch, 2009, p. 9). Yet, as voters, women’s turnout has been increasing over the years, proving their interest in politics, and the gender gap in voting has been decreasing (Kumar & Gupta, 2014; Rai, 2011). In the recent Lok Sabha (2019) elections, the national voting turnout was 66.79% for men and 66.68% for women (Election Commission of India, 2019). This trend is reflected in the Haryana Assembly elections as well. Yet there were more male registered voters (9,878,042) than women (8,512,231) (Government of Haryana, 2019).
The study examines barriers to women’s participation in three villages in Haryana, the perceptions of women voters and representatives 1 as well as their resistance to such barriers in the system.
Methodology and Tools
This study uses the Feminist Standpoint theory to highlight the experiences of women in Haryana in general and as participants in the political process. According to Brooks,
Feminist Standpoint epistemology is a unique philosophy of knowledge building that challenges us to (1) see and understand the world through the eyes and experiences of oppressed women and (2) apply the vision and knowledge of the oppressed to social activism and social change. It is both a theory of knowledge building and a method of doing research- an approach to knowledge construction and a call to political action. (2007, p. 55)
This theoretical framework adopts a qualitative methodology, using tools such as in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and field observations for data collection.
Field and Sample
In order to understand women’s political behaviour, one needs to understand the larger economic, social and cultural setting of these women. Three villages Ding, Ali Mohammad and Jodhpuria were selected purposively in the Sirsa district of Haryana. The important reason for selecting Ding was because the last three sarpanches of the village prior to my investigation were women, although there is no reservation for women here for the post of sarpanch. The woman sarpanch in Ding at the time of research was from the dominant Jat 2 (general category) community. Similarly, in village Ali Mohammad there was a Jat woman sarpanch, while the sarpanch in Jodhpuria was a man from the SC community. The three villages comprised people of different castes. The post of sarpanch was usually held by a member of the dominant Jat caste or of the SCs, the latter benefiting from the provision for seat reservation.
The field work for this study was conducted between June and August 2017. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to include the various stakeholders drawn from different caste and class locations, people with different political experiences and holding different posts, such as those of panch and sarpanch, as well as gram panchayat ‘trainers’ 3 (government officials who provide orientation training to the newly elected panches and sarpanches). The final sample size was 25 (16 women and 9 men) all of whom were interviewed. Three FGDs were conducted, the first group consisting of women from the general caste category, the second was composed of SC women, and the third was a mixed group.
Findings and Discussion
The position of women in Haryana is very low. According to the Census of India 2011 (Government of India, 2011), the literacy rate in Haryana is 76.64%. While the male literacy rate stands at 85.38%, the female literacy rate is still stagnant at 66.77%. The sex ratio of Haryana is 879, which is much below the national average of 940. The child sex ratio (0–6 year age group) in Haryana is 834 which is much below the national average of 914. The representation of women in the state assembly has never gone above 15%. Son preference and unequal treatment of women in families, society and politics are the norm, and gender discrimination is experienced by girls and women from childhood to old age. Their choices are restricted by the family and society, even in simple matters such as what to wear and without doubt in the important matters of marriage and reproduction. In addition, women have to follow strict rules of purdah/ghunghat (the veil), especially among the upper castes, whereas SC women have relatively fewer restrictions.
Purdah is a very widely socially accepted practice in North India, especially in the states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Devi and Kaur (2019) found in the villages of Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on the borderline of Haryana that most married women have to observe purdah/ghunghat, this custom is an integral part of the region’s cultural and moral values. Their study revealed that purdah/ghunghat prevents women from decision-making processes, enjoying social mobility or achieving economic independence, thus women are controlled both physically and ideologically. According to Chowdhry (1993) who focused on Haryana, purdah still remains a sign of patriarchal control despite great socio-economic, legal and political changes in Haryana.
Apart from the direct physical control of a woman through violence, there are certain cultural constraints which not only control her ideologically, but also assure her non-participation in decision making and in a curious way even physically inhibit her from making an attempt (Chowdhry, 1994, p. 283).
I found these and similar trends in the three villages studied. Families fix a girl’s marriage without taking her consent, purdah is still universal, son preference is rampant. In case too many girls are born they are named dhapi (no more), baskari (stop now), bhateri (too much), vadoo (too much), antim (the last or the end) and so on in the belief that henceforth boys would be born. These names are not just childhood names but stay with women lifelong. It is not surprising that in such an ambience where there is excessive control over women, their role in politics is also very restricted. Multiple restrictions affect women’s access to education and public spaces, confine them to housework and stunt their self-confidence, all of which are influential factors in deterring their participation in local governance despite the enabling legislation for one third reservation of seats for women.
Women’s Struggle to be Voters
In all the three villages (Ding, Ali Mohammad and Jodhpuria) women’s voter identification (ID) cards are not issued as a matter of course especially if they are unmarried, whereas men get theirs as soon as they turn eligible to vote. It is the belief that since a woman ‘truly’ belongs to her husband’s place of residence, she should apply for and get all her identification cards there. Local administrative officers also show marked apathy towards women voters when they apply for their voter ID cards. During interviews and FGDs, we found that out of 37 women, only one woman managed to secure a voter ID card before marriage. The sex ratio charts of the villages display positive sex ratios (Table 1), but less numbers of women are registered as voters (Table 2).
Sex Ratio of the Villages
Total Population and Registered Voters of Villages
Women with voter ID cards are genuinely interested in voting, and even feel proud to go to the election booth to cast their vote. Unfortunately, discouraging male attitudes, both familial and official, dampen women’s prompt access to their voting cards.
Challenges in Casting Votes and Campaigning
During fieldwork it became apparent that the political opinions of the male members of the family are passed off as the consensus of the entire family. Decision making rests in the hands of men in the deeply patriarchal society of Sirsa. While discussing why women do not challenge this norm and take a more independent approach to political decision making, one of the respondents, Kanta, justified this by saying ‘Neither the government nor any political leader do anything for us, then why would I spoil my relationships within the family for them? I cast my vote according to the decision of the male members of my family’. Autonomy in making political decisions is fully realised only in female-headed families.
Candidates who contest the election for the post of sarpanch, using their social and economic power to mobilise voters, approach, threaten or lure the male members of families through muscle power, money and alcohol to ensure that the entire family would vote for them. In interviews, women admitted that they opposed the distribution of alcohol which leads to quarrels and discord within the family, but their views went unheard. SC women were particularly bitter about the total loss of their autonomy during elections, husbands being in the habit of selling off their legal political rights.
In the case of women candidates, most of the campaigning and related expenditure were controlled by their husbands or male relatives. When questioned, they interpreted the distribution of money in a different light. According to one woman sarpanch her family spent hundreds of thousands of rupees during the panchayat elections but explained it away as timely philanthropy. She says she helped the poor and needy with money for start-ups in business, purchase of basic items of daily use or to pay off debts. Making caste and class intersection more apparent, a former woman sarpanch remarked that ‘only voters from poor families demand liquor for their votes, not Jats and members of the upper castes’. In addition to money and alcohol the use of muscle power is common. In one FGD women of the SC community said that despite their disinterest in casting their vote or in the candidates, they are forcibly put inside vehicles and taken to the polling booth to vote. These instances of coercion not only force women to cast their vote for specific candidates but also completely compromise their physical freedom.
Women’s Presence in Local Governance as Representatives
The study found that the presence of elected women representatives as panch and sarpanch was greater than what reservation ensures (Table 3).
Representation of Women in Local Panchayats in Three Villages
By statutory provision 33% of the seats in PRIs are reserved for women. Usually men contest all the unreserved seats. But when we look at the election records of the three villages, the percentage of women panches and sarpanches is as high as 43% which is 10% above the percentage of reserved seats provided by statute. After raising this issue with the participants, some of the reasons behind the larger presence of women came into the open. The villagers shared the information that sometimes fewer men are eligible to stand for election for a miscellany of reasons. Under the law, a serving government employee, an under-trial in a criminal case and a defaulter of a co-operative society bank loan are ineligible to stand for election. In such cases the women of the family step in. However, once she is elected, she promptly becomes a titular figure and the husbands and other male relatives take over and control the work and power of the woman elected. In many cases women representatives are not even informed of what is happening in their own offices. They are present in public only when a block or district level official visits the village/panchayat, who in turn rarely questions the interference of unelected male family members. According to one of the women respondents, even the local newspapers mention the name of the husband of the woman sarpanch as the sarpanch. These embedded patriarchal practices ensure that women do not matter or function as representatives or executives.
The husband of a former woman representative said,
I was a government employee at the time [of the elections]. I didn’t want to lose my job but also wanted to contest the election. But, I also didn’t want my wife to contest the election. Because she does not have knowledge of politics, she is incapable of doing political work, also she does not have confidence to speak in public. But with no other choice left, I fought the election in my wife’s name. Fortunately she won. After winning the election, I resigned from my job and started working full time for the panchayat.
Thus the visibility of women in more than one third of the seats gives a misleading impression of the quality of their representation. Even after being successful in the elections women who intend to function independently of their families and political forces have to struggle a great deal to perform their duties in the panchayat.
Struggles Within and Outside Marriage
As mentioned earlier, most families and local authorities are disinterested even in registering women as voters before marriage. This deters this section of women from voting, much less from developing an interest in contesting elections. Additionally, soon after marriage the responsibility of caring and child-rearing leaves women with hardly any time to explore their political interests. On the other hand, the interviews make clear that, most women are expected to quit their education and employment, if any, after-marriage which limits their self-expression and outside interests. Confirmation of cultural expectations of women emerged during the interviews. Most women are expected to observe purdah/ghunghat after marriage, which limits their social interactions with people around them. A woman is expected to keep her distance and not engage in communication with any man older than her husband, including her father-in-law and brother-in-law. These practices not only impact her interactions within the family but prohibit speech with all male outsiders. In the case of women representatives, even though they might be ‘allowed’ to talk to local officials or gram panchayat trainers, they do not feel confident enough to take it to the next level, thereby losing many opportunities to engage in activities connected to their office. When women attempt to defy restrictions on mobility, speech and expression, they are seen as ‘indecent’ or ‘undisciplined’, which is further detrimental to their political career or aspirations.
The interviews, however, showed that some women are still able to resist traditional controls. For example, the woman sarpanch of Ali Mohammad has stopped covering her face and now speaks in public. Similarly, the woman sarpanch of Ding village asks, ‘Purdah/ghunghat is compulsory after marriage for most women, how can women do politics in a long ghunghat? Customs like ghunghat should be banned’.
Dual Burden of Work
Discussions with the gram panchayat trainers and women sarpanches reveal that many women bring along their children to the training camps as they do not have options for day care or creches. The trainers often have to allow them time to feed and pacify the crying babies in between sessions. As a result, the women end up not being able to focus on the training even if they are able to attend the training at all. Many women pointed out that on the days when the training sessions were held, they have to get up early, complete the household work, hand over the remaining tasks to another woman in the household before leaving the house. They had no relief from housework and were responsible for it. Housework had priority over panchayat matters.
The woman sarpanch of Ali Mohammad village recounted,
There was a lot of control over women in my parental family. We were never encouraged but were rather discouraged by the men of the family to take an interest in politics. They insisted that we should take interest only in household work; as a result it became my daily routine [to do household chores]. But after marriage I got an opportunity to contest for the post of sarpanch as there was no man who was eligible to contest the election and my in-laws did not want to let go the post from the family. I won the election but I still had to perform the household responsibilities alongside my duties as sarpanch.
Her narrative underscores the position of women representatives at home. They were not exempted during their tenure from their duties and obligations towards their families.
The local society in Sirsa is very patriarchal and men did not fully endorse the entry of women into panchayats. As the husband of a former sarpanch put it, ‘If women will do politics then who will take care of family, cook food for children and send them to school?’ The gendered role of women in the family is central in the minds of their menfolk. During training sessions and in public places, men (both elected functionaries and members of the general public) try to dominate women. A woman gram panchayat ‘trainer’ stated that during training sessions, when women raised the issue of their equal rights in the decision making process in the gram panchayat, the men representatives present in the training session countered by saying, ‘You are speaking too much about rights and equality here. What will do you achieve talking here? If you have courage then go to your village and talk to your own panchayat like this’. Men’s lack of respect for women is there for all to see.
It was observed that despite the double burden of work and the extreme discouragement, women were quite happy to take on the responsibilities of their position in the panchayat as they were proud of it. They also pointed out that they liked their training sessions despite the hassles, as they felt better informed and involved with the work they were supposed to do.
Gender Insensitivity in the System
After running through all the hurdles and barriers, when women representatives do get the opportunity to work and participate actively, they complain that the higher authorities do not give them due respect. The woman sarpanch of one village said,
I have no problem doing the work of the panchayat, and I manage it side by side with my household responsibilities but I have only one problem. I have to face the district officials who do not listen and respond to my requests. So, I have to leave my little daughter at home alone to make repeated visits to the district [headquarters] to follow up or get my work done.
It shows that the male dominated system not only undervalues the limitations and challenges of the women representatives but also deepens existing challenges. The higher authorities or bureaucratic officials, mostly male, do not easily process financial grants to women sarpanches. Due to this negative attitude the latter’s political role is diluted and they find it difficult to pursue development goals. According to a statement by a woman sarpanch, ‘Looking at the slow progress of work, villagers start commenting and taunting [the woman sarpanch] that since the sarpanch is a woman, work is not getting done. Whereas, in the case of a male sarpanch they do not doubt his capability’.
As discussed earlier, the women agreed that they liked the gram panchayat training courses which are provided by the Haryana Institute of Rural Development (HIRD). 4 However, the training sessions are very few and very often the first such experience for them. As a result, they are not completely comfortable during the sessions and hesitate to express themselves in front of men. According to one of the gram panchayat woman trainers, ‘Women participants often come to talk to me when there is a break or when men are not present’. Fearing men’s contempt and hostility women’s hesitation is pronounced during discussions on alcoholism, domestic violence or dominance of men in workspaces, and so on. Therefore, women participants require not just multiple but also separate and exclusive training sessions free of the presence of hostile male colleagues.
The Special Challenge of Being a SC Woman Representative
Alongside this bunch of hurdles, caste discrimination can prove to be another source of fear for SC women. All women representatives face common problems, but the situation is worse for SC women. A former SC woman panch (representative/member of the panchayat) told us:
We have no social and economic power to contest elections. I contested the election for the post of panch and secured a seat only with the support of the upper caste [Jats]. But the woman sarpanch was from another dominant caste group. Her husband used to do panchayat work on her behalf. Her husband never involved me in panchayat activities, never shared with me any document related to panchayat meetings and other work. If my signature is required anywhere, knowing that I will go to the office for my salary, he takes my signature at that time. I do not question him because I have to get my money.
SC women are conspicuously challenged. They need upper caste support to win a seat, are vulnerable in all circumstances and ignored even in office as members of local government councils.
Conclusion
The study reveals that women occupy both reserved and unreserved seats in local governance, but they have to struggle in both the domestic and the public spheres, in both their natal and marital families, to access their equal political rights as voters and elected representatives. There are several well entrenched familial, social, cultural and institutional barriers which restrict women’s effective participation in local level politics. As marriage continues to hold a central position in their lives, their gendered roles, responsibilities and restrictions on their mobility discourage women in many ways from developing and exercising their legal political rights except nominally and formally.
Those in official positions rarely escape being treated as figureheads by male relatives who are the ones who exercise their official powers. Therefore, though women appear to have a large presence in local government, they rarely work freely and independently as members of panchayats or village heads. Even if they manage to exercise their will and take active part in panchayat work, they face censure from insensitive government officials who reinforce the strong local patriarchal ethos. Women from marginal communities face further challenges in having to cope with caste hierarchy and discrimination. Still, some women expressed joy in their electoral success despite their daily challenges at home and in the office. They are hopeful that these patriarchal and caste biases will eventually diminish over the years and more women will actively participate in local politics and governance.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
This research paper is based on material in my MPhil dissertation titled ‘Women’s Perceptions and Presence in Politics: A Study of Women in Local Governance in Sirsa District of Haryana’. I thank my supervisor Professor Meena Gopal at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the anonymous reviewers for their comments.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.