By: Caroline Szyber
Giving voice to the voiceless: A field study from India about capacity building towards women in Panchayats as an instrument for empowerment
Introduction
At the end of 1992, the Indian Parliament passed Amendment Acts 73 and 74 to the Constitution, which provided for a new quota system. The intent was to reserve 1/3 of the seats for women, with direct elections in the village council, Panchayats. While I was studying the status of women in the Panchayat system I discovered that women’s participation is merely symbolic even though there are 33% seats reserved for them. There are many cases where female Panchayat and Pradhan (village head) members act as proxies, their responsibilities have been taken away by the male member of the family. Even if women are represented in all the committees in the Panchayats, such as administrative, planning, health and education committees, in most cases women members have no knowledge about their role and responsibilities. I also discovered that many women are uneducated and don’t know the political procedures, rules or their rights. In addition many of female Panchayat members, whom I interviewed told me they felt discriminated by the male members. Such underlying discouragement works toward an unsuccessful attempt to introduce women into politics, even if women are being forced to enter politics by their family members. To counter these problems women need, in my opinion, to be educated about the importance of their role and influence in politics, how the system works and which rules are prevailing. NGOs provide women with a foundation of the crucial knowledge through education in capacity building programs.
For the researcher capacity building is about giving women self-confidence. It could also be called self-confident building. Capacity building is the education NGOs offer women so that they will be aware about their own capacity in politics, on the work-market etc. Giving women the capacity to know what to do when they take place in politics, what their rights are, so they can act out these rights.
Without women’s development our development will be for seen. It includes development skills for women, preparing them for their new roles, legal reforms, administrative structures and mechanism that will work to change the crippling bureaucratic attitudes. Giving women knowledge and awareness about their rights is the key issue.
When women become active in politics they gain influence over political decision making, which enables them to represent their interests and India’s common interests on a much more influential scale than they could ever achieve by simply voting in elections. It allows them to introduce their concerns into political debate, which would not be considered as necessary in a discussion by all male groups of politicians. It allows them to make their voice heard.
The aim of this study is to investigate how capacity building strategies given by NGOs in India can help elected female Panchayat members and how it can effect women’s political empowerment. The study focuses on the research questions;
· First what are the barriers that make it hard for women to enter politics?
· Second - what role can support from NGOs and capacity building activities play in breaking the barriers that makes it hard for women to enter politics?
Findings
Getting women into Panchayats in large numbers was only one part of the task of representation. Another was ensuring that women had some leverage in relation to political decisions; it is important to bring gender related issues to the legal, social and political agendas. There are many barriers for women in India that make it hard for them to get a place in politics and being able to express their rights. The women that I interviewed expressed several different barriers that made it hard for them; custom and norm barriers, practical barriers, motivational barriers, family barriers, awareness barriers, traditional and cultural barriers among many more.
One way to break these barriers is capacity building programs. According to my findings it is found that there are more female participants in Panchayats and that the awareness has increased as a result of this programmes. Some NGO have served as agencies, which in an effective manner has strengthened the women’s role in politics and also provide educational and organizational support, which would not have been available in its absence.
The presence of women in the Panchayats structure is an indication of the collaboration that is desired of them in the development of the country. Women’s presence in Panchayat bodies open a way for them to make their voice heard and thus bring to the fore the rich content of feminine thought and action in the development of a people. There is also reason to believe this helps women to be more equal in every day’s life in India and helps them break the barriers that stop them from being equal by there presence in politics.
With the help of capacity building women have gotten the confidence to try to overcome the obstacles created by patriarchy, bureaucracy and society. Education has long been one of the most decisive of our life-chances, the key to equal opportunity and the ladder to advancement. The role of support from NGOs and capacity building strategies seems to be a way to overcome many of the problems women are facing, although my study showed that not all NGOs or not all capacity-building strategies are equally effective to increase the power base for the elected women. Capacity building programs for women are good but it is also important that men get education about the importance of women in politics. Excluding men from these educations programs will never lead to complete change, as male attitudes contributes to the problem.
While education will improve the confidence and effectiveness of the new women politicians, I think it is also important to supplement this education with active programs of social change to encourage mutual respect among men and women politicians and among the general population.
During my time in the field I noticed that NGOs could also act like a watchdog of the Panchayats to see that women really get a saying in the decision making process. The women’s movement and network of NGOs that have strong grassroots presence and deep insight in women’s concerns have contributed in inspiring initiatives for the empowerment of women and helped women to get a place in local politics.
I do believe that findings in my study suggest though that there are important differences in the empowerment potential of the organizations and capacity building. It can be a powerful instrument to get a more equal society and is a very important complement method that breaks some of the barriers even if not all of them. It empowers women to a certain degree but need to be completed with other methods if the result is to get an equal society and a robust democracy. After doing my field study and having seen all the efforts NGOs put in to give women the best training possible, I have to praise them for their support. It is worth so much for the women and is the only way that the system of reserved seats will really work. NGOs should have credit in all aspects, but what I also realized during my time in the field was that these women don’t need just a couple of days training. They need long-term support and in order to give them this it is important that the NGOs, but also, the government and Panchayats co-operate. That is why follow ups are crucial, to see how the women are handling their positions as politicians after three months, six months and after one year. These women have to feel that they are a part of a system that works.
About the study
This study is based on empirical material that I gathered during my field study for a bachelor thesis in political science in India November-March 2004/2005. The study is limited to Panchayats on the village level in rural areas in India (the states Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan) and the empirical material is mainly based on interviews with women from rural areas who have been in capacity building programs, key-persons (Indian academics that helped me get in touch with NGOs and people that could be of interest to the study) and NGOs. Uttar Pradesh was chosen because it is the largest state in India and one of the states that have the lowest participation of women in Panchayats.
Full document at: http://www.quotaproject.org/other/Giving_voice_to_the_voiceless.pdf |
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