Womens Democracatisation and Democracy in India

Womens Democracatisation and Democracy in IndiaProblematising Democracatisation and Democracy in IndiaVisions of g overnmental development demands/desires democracy and elaborateness as innate to its discourse. Development in this sense thus unavoidablenesss democratic decisions making, in formulateed and moive civil society and inclusive governmental structure to reach its goal. In the Indian condition the process of democratization with inclusive pickicipation is desired by dint of the 73rd- 74th amendment Act of Indian constitution, 1992. The Act fosters the strengthening of local government by creating opportunities for inclusive confederacy. It provides remunerates to plan Castes and Scheduled Tribes and women, the most marginalised in the hierarchical Indian society to participate in local government. Aiming to redress the gender and association inequities the Act provides 33% qualification to the aforementi unrivaledd categories to participate in local bodies.Post implementation of the Act that has now passed sixteen years, womens connection has been remarkably panoptical. This has recently resulted in Union locker approving a proposal of a constitutional amendment bill for increasing quota (50%) for women in punchayets at all tiers (DNA 29th August, 2009). Media lines estimate more than 1.4 million women to take in 2,52,000 Panchayat seats in future. It also states, at present break of the total elected representatives of panchayat numbering around 2.8 million, 36.87% argon women. The Panchayat raj ministry publish indicates a significant role played by reservation in bringing women into mainstream (ibid). According to this report, ab pop four-spot-fifth of all women representatives in panchayat elections got elected from reticent seats and ab turn up 83% of them entered politics through quota. Positive concern of entering politics and working as a panchayat raj functionary is visible as 79% of women representatives reported bet ter self-esteem, 81% reported confidence building and 74% stated increase of decision-making abilities (ibid). Such a positive report gives a picture of better and inclusive governance that India is moving towards by applying gender and development approach path. This step foresees increased active-participation of women in human race sphere and their empowerment.However, we need to look detailedly at the political participation that is envisioned and the actual implementation. Would political participation also facilitate womens participation at decision-making? What would participation signify especially for Dalit women in terms of the dire consequences of their earnest assertion to realize their rights? What is the role that the 73rd Amendment Act envisages for Scheduled Caste and what is the role they end up play? At the backdrop of increased efforts from the state for inclusive governance these are the lines of enquiry I intend to draw upon.Dr. Ambedkar in the constituent Assembly, 1948 expressed his views on Indian villages What is a village scarcely a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism? (Mathew,G. Nayak,R.1996 1). He questioned the why should the village become the locus of the political structure?(Palanithurai 2003 27) Villages ruled by its dominant elites and upper circle have been very conservative and are based on traditional caste structure. local anesthetic self government thus would reinforce the villages as unites of elite captures exploiting the downtrodden at grassroots.Problem Statement/Justification/Purpose of researchSixteen years of the modification of the 73rd constitutional amendment Act has brought about a remarkable change in local governance. The formal participation and involvement of Dalit and women has increased in local politics. At this juncture in that location is a need to undertake a reality check. Does formal participation operator actual representation of Dalit women? Is the pr ocess of political participation inclusive and empowering? Does assertion of Dalit women leads to forcefulness against them as they are non meant to participate actively?The paper looks at Dalit womens experiences of political participation in panchayat raj and its impact on their empowerment. My interest in the guinea pig of Dalit women comes from a number of different sources.First, from a personal experience as inter alia a Dalit charr. I, see some(prenominal) facets to the Dalit womens experiences having been brought up with this identity and being from the same background.Secondly, experience of working with civil society organisations on Gender Justice and rights of Dalit women during the graduation as a part of field work, internship with CHR and volunteering in Dalit movement in India drew my attention to Dalit womens issues more prominently. During the process I met Dalit women activists from rural Maharashtra working at grass-roots and saw the constant problems they face up for they challenged the systemic oppression. The inter separateality of caste and gendered hierarchy that gets intensified as Dalit women enter the public sphere came forward as a current learning. The socio-cultural positioning and significantly the caste- phase-gender interplay rile Dalit womens experiences circumstantial. I therefore wanted to document the experiences of Dalit women who enter the public sphere for the first fourth dimension through formal mean such as political participation.Finally and most importantly my focus on Dalit womens political participation in Panchayat is because at policy level although the introduction of reservation to marginalised groups (Women, SCs, STs) at local body envisions inclusive democracy and better governance, in practice the local level politics is a crudest unit of oppression.Thus the need to watch Dalit womens experiences of political participation arose from my own understanding and experience of the issue as well asSpe cificity of existence Dalit Women IntersectionalityDalit women in India today number 80.517 million or nearly 48% of the total Dalit population, 16% of the total female population and 8% of the total Indian Population (Irudayam et al., 20061). Dalit women face discrimination on a daily basis, as a Dalit, as women and as a poor they are in extremely vulnerable position (National Campaign on Dalit gentlemans gentleman Rights 20061). Dalit women make majority of unorganised labourer in urban settings and landless labourers in rural. Systemic force against Dalit women can be seen as a chemical mechanism to keep Dalit in a subordinated position. It is built in to the structure of the dominant society, which does non acknowledge the basic human rights of Dalit in worldwide and Dalit women in particular. there is a clash mingled with the expected role of Dalit women and the role they achieve because of the differential gear ways in which they negotiate their mixer shape and gend er norms. The new public role that the 1992 Act assigns them generates a clash between traditional norms and the achieved political rights of Dalit women. Dalit women who have the ambition to occupy a political position much encounter resistance from the society. General admonishment becomes violence as soon as they show too much initiative, speak up and gain backup man from the larger community. Political participation for Dalit women is seen as a threat by the dominant caste groups. Dalit womens entry in politics is perceived as them securing entitlement to public resources. Strong Casteist and patriarchal biases against Dalit result in violent attacks, restraining Dalit women from exercising their rights through various mechanisms. There fore at academic level, I believe there is an urgent need to composition the experiences of Dalit women participating in politics. It is at the village level that caste and gendered hierarchy plays out in crudest forms)With this premise I for m objectives of my study the broad objective beingStudy the experiences of Dalit womens right to political participation in rural Panchayat Raj system.I have following specific objective for the studyExplore the factors that restrain or facilitate participation of Dalit women in rural Panchayat Raj.Examine the impact of political participation on Dalit women in Panchayat Raj.Study the empowerment process of Dalit women through the political participation in Panchayat Raj.To suggest recommendations for effective participation of Dalit women in Panchayat RajResearch QuestionBased on the objectives of study I formulated my research question for the enquiryWhat are the experiences of Dalit women participating in panchayat raj?Has the political participation impacted Dalit womens empowerment?What have been the attributing/restraining factors for the empowerment of Dalit women?What are the achievements of their political participation for themselves and for the Dalit community they repres ent and for the society in general?Feminist approachWithin feminist affectionate science research, qualitative data, in particular in-depth interviews have held a prominent place in the history of feminist query (Rabinowitz and Martin, 200144 in Kitzenger2003126). Focus groups methods are also employed along with such talk about experiences. These are self-report methods. My choice of topic and feminist predilection required to utilize this method.This goes back to second wave of feminism (1970s) that emphasized the reclaiming and validation of womens experiences through listening womens voices (Kitzenger, 2003125, Kirsch, 19994). The personal experiences of women have also been recognized in political context since then. Further Feminist social science researcher do it general to base their studies on womens voices and experiences. In fact feminist researches aimed at listening to womens different voices (Gilligan, 1982 in Kitzenger, 2003126) and to address womens lives and expe riences in their own terms, to create theory grounded in the actual experiences and language of women (DuBois, 1983 108 in Kitzenger, 2003126). With this historical reference I distinct to apply feminist approach a most suitable analytic framework in my study of Dalit women sharing their experiences of Political participation.MethodologyThis section methodology brings out the processes through which data is collected, collated, analyzed and interpreted. This is aimed at increasing the reliability of the study for the further validation as research is performed in dedicate to be used. The study primarily adopts a qualitative approach as it helps to understand the subject of study through the experiences of the Dalit women.The paper focuses on the political participation and its impact on Dalit women. It attempts to look critically at political participation of Dalit women and the trends of political participation at local level since the 73rd amendment Act, 1992. It does it so by d ocumenting experiences of Dalit women and analyzing the complexities problematic out-of-pocket to caste-class-gender interplay in the political participation process of Dalit women.These questions will only be answered by talking to Dalit women who have participated in the political processes. A imperious and comprehensive documentation of Dalit womens experiences at local governance is thus needed. For this purpose I decided to conduct a focused study based on qualitative primary data collected through field work.Methodology is one of the important sections of my research paper as the process of qualitative enquiry through field work has taught me more about my research topic along with the literature. After a considerable thinking process I decided that the method should be suitable to the research questions that I intend to address. As the research focuses on Dalit womens experiences the best method was to record their experiences through in-depth interviews. I advisedly kept the interviews unstructured as its being qualitative in nature, provides greater breadth. In-depth unstructured interviews allow researcher to explore a theme without being cut back to a series of questions. I being from a Dalit community and having worked on the Dalit womens issues came to my advantages as the discussions with Dalit women were focused at the same time gave scope to them to talk out their experiences without whatever hindrances. The rapport building and trust was achieved very easily. I lived in the field place with respondents and in special skids (there are three main cases) I stayed with the respondents for more than devil days in order to understand and document the various dimensions involved in political participation of Dalit women. I used a question guideline that was formulated through the discussion with the expert in the field of research methodology and local governance1Sampling The purposive (non-probability) have was utilized based on focus of m y study to document and assess the experiences of Dalit womens political participation in local politics. Intentional and directed selection of Dalit women at grassroots politics was employed. CHR, SPMM activists helped me identify data. Only one woman declined to give interview. The reason she declined itself interprets the problem faced by Dalit woman, I was informed by the activists that sheEighteen Dalit women in total were identified from three blocks of Beed regularise out of ten blocks and one block of Latur district. I selected ten out of eighteen Dalit women on the basis of sampling objectivity and representation of differences within Dalit women. Also, their diverse experiences of political participation were considered. The sample was based on following interconnecting criteria.Panchayats at village level (Gram-Panchayats)newly elected Scheduled caste women President at village levelSC women who had been Ex-PresidentsDalit women serving more than one tenureDalit woman wh o tried but not succeeded in accessing panchayat postCases where no-confidence motion was exercised on the Dalit women presidentsCases where abuse, beating up and atrociousness inflictedSuccess-stories of active participationFinally 9 Dalit women from Beed District and one from Latur district of Marathwada region were selected. Three cases emerged as a main focus during my field work due to the special experiences of respondents. Though the sample was purposive I equilibrize sub-castes within plan castes by having respondents from Mahar and Mang (major scheduled castes of Maharashtra). Efforts were taken to include respondents with wide range of age in this study.Data collectionIn the month of July, 2009 I visited the identified field place, Beed District, Marathwada region, Maharashtra. I already had established contacts with a human rights organization Campaign for serviceman Rights in Beed and its sister organization, Savitribai Phule Mahila Mandal (SPMM) which works on the i ssue of gender justice and womens empowerment through self help group. With the consultation of Manisha Tokle (The founding secretary of SPMM) and Ashok Tangade (National secretary of CHR) I identified potential respondents from the selected blocks of Beed Distict. They also entrust me in contact with the field workers of CHR who handled these blocks. Manisha, Ashok and field workers gave me enriched information based on their field work experiences. Being well-versed with the area made them experts in the psycho-social behavior of lot and the cultural challenges. Their guidance and discussions after interviews has been very important as something new would always emerge out of these discussions which I might not had thought during the interview. Their interpretations of the cases gave me crystallise views.CHR field activists from respective blocks accompanied me for every(prenominal) interview. They worked as informants. Their good rapports with the respondents, understanding o f the region and the cultural meanings made my task easier. My own background being a Dalit woman was helpful in getting support from the respondents, establishing rapport and gaining their trust.In-depth unstructured interviewswere recorded on the digital voice recorder. I maintained notes during and after every interview which helped me over come the problems in data analysis. The documentation of experiences of women was backed by my notes and suggestions from the field workers who discussed their interpretations after every interview.Informed consentBefore victimization the recorder I fully informed the respondents about the purpose of my study and the necessity to use the recorderPictures of the respondents and the evidentiary documents wherever needed were taken for documentation.Interviews with expertise/ Key-InformantsI also consulted my ideas and paper with expertise as well as I interviewed key informants to gather their experiences in the field, on the issueFGDArea of st udyThe area of study was identified based on the characteristics of the region. The Marathwada region of the Maharashtra state was selected for the very peculiar reasons. First, Marathwada region being one of the most backward, feudal and atrocity prone regions of the Maharashtra state, second, a very special history of Dalit movement and violence against Dalits in the region and very importantly the right based work of Human rights organisations such as CHR, SPMM for the Dalit and womens upliftment. According to the first hand investigation and identification of cases I selected the following Blocks in Beed District and I took one exceptional case from Latur district that comes in Marathwada region itself.1.1 IntroductionThe paper looks at how Dalit women, compared to women in general, are a different entity when they participate in Indias local self-governing institutions, cognise as Panchayat Raj Institutions. The 73rd Amendment of the Constitutional Act 1992, came into force in April 1993, providing an opportunity for Dalits and women the most marginalised in the hierarchical Indian society to participate in local-body elections at the village level. The Act, seeking to redress gender and caste inequities in rural India, provides 33% reservation to women, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes in local bodies. Within this 33%, Dalit women are provided reserved seats on a rotating basis (meaning, every five or ten years the constituencies reserved for dalits and women are changed). After more than 15 years of the Act, Dalit and Dalit womens participation has been remarkably visible. However, we need to look critically at the term participation and what it entailsespecially in terms of the consequences dalit women face when they severely assert their rights. What is the role that the 73rd Amendment Act envisages for women and what is the real role they end up playing? There is a clash between the expected role of women and Dalit women because of the diff erential ways in which they negotiate their social status and gender norms. The new public role that the 1992 Act assigns them generates a clash between traditional norms and the achieved political rights of Dalit women. strength exercised against women, and specifically against Dalit women, when they participate in political work, in indicative of the stratifications that obtain in the Indian social order. Vulnerably positioned at the bottom of Indias caste, class and gender hierarchies, Dalit women experience endemic gender and caste discrimination and violence as the outcome of severely imbalanced social, economic and political power equations (Irudayam et al 2006, pp.3). Within the oppressive social structure Dalit women become victim of violence if they transgress their rights and try to challenge their lower status. As gender violence, like some(prenominal) violence there are contexts, in relation to violence against Dalit women, the nature and dynamics of these contexts, rel ating to power and force, make them vulnerable and functions as a constrain to their potency and voice. This morphological violence is an outcome of gender based inequalities perpetuated by patriarchal power relation also shaped, compounded and intensified by caste discrimination. force acts as a crucial social mechanism to maintain Dalit womens caste-gender subordination to men and that of the dominant caste men thereby subjugating both Dalit women and through them their community. fierceness against women is gender-based and gender biased (Irudayam et al., 2006 17) in the sense it the devaluates womens status in social order perpetuated by patriarchy and justified on the basis of perceived differences between male and female informality. In Indian context the caste scat descending from purity to pollution, purest Caste men being on the top of the ladder whereas the polluted caste placed on the lower rung women are pushed even further down to the lowest rung. It works against their integrity as an someone this is a violation of womens rights, such as their identity as a woman and self-respect as an individual. Therefore violence in this sense means denial of rights as an individual and hindering womans development at various levels of integrity, as an Individual, as a woman in a family, a woman belonging to certain community and culture. Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung defines Violence as avoidable insult to basic human take he identifies the basic human needs as survival, well-being, identity, and freedom (Galtung 1990 pp 292).1.2 Being a Dalit and a Woman Caste-Gender NexusDalit women face collective and public threat or act of violence which discourage them from demanding their rights, it is effects of structures on individual place that results in the gap between potential and actual fulfilment of rights. Retaliatory violence is exercised in response to dalit womens assertions for their rights by defying caste, untouchability norms or asserti ng their rights to cultural, economic and political resources. Dominant caste women tend to be subjected to violence more within the family due to strict control over their sexuality and freedom of movement again due to the caste factors, in order to preserve the purity and status of their caste.There have been movements through out the country making Dalits aware of their rights and also there have been feminist movements in India which took up issues of women subordination however looking at Dalit women as an imagined kin (Rao, 2003 1) and analysing the premises which prevent them from exercising their agency is yet the area of exploration. Imagining Dalit women as a different category as Bhagvat mentions is needed, because these feminist movements and Dalit movements lack a critical dimension from Dalit womans standpoint. Guru emphasises on this Point while he talks about politics of difference to bring out the specificity of Dalit womens subjugation. This subjugation is charact erised by their experience of two distinct patriarchal structures a Brahmanical form of patriarchy that deeply stigmatizes Dalit women because of their caste status, as well as the control by Dalit men over the sexual and economic labour of their women (Guru in Rao 2003 1).Political Participation for women means securing their entitlement to public resources, the economic resources they will avail as a result of participation for them and their community, the social and political benefits such as Development of the Dalit community in village, implementation of government schemes for Dalit more democratically due their representation. With the strong patriarchal biases against women and marginalised Dalit, the dominant caste male members would not want these sections to equally enjoy the resources over which they had monopoly since long.There has a lot been written and debated around political participation of women and Dalits, conclusions are made that there has been fairly good rep resentation in terms of number but the mere participation doesnt help these sections to exercise their rights. Nature of participation and strong suit of the act has been assessed too, although with limited vision of looking only at the quantitative aspect of political participation. Very little has been studied on the gender-Caste nexus which denies the right of economic, political, social liberties to Dalit community as a whole and Dalit women within it. Political participation through Panchayat Raj Institution has given space for women to come out and talk about their grievances. The reservation has limited itself to space creation even though it implied the empowerment of women and there by making them equal partners in frolic of political, social, economical resource.It is seen that the oppressive social structures have reaffirmed their superiority by attacking women through new ways of oppression such as criminalisation of politics, startle right from the election process t o making women mere proxies of their male counterparts. Violence in the process of Political participation to ensure womens non- participate and exercise their agency is a crucial aspect to study and to enhance policies which will cut across the structural inequalities of caste-class-gender and give dalit women an equal status. I want to study Violence experienced by women at different levels of participation and look at the specificity of violence experienced by Dalit women being trice oppressed due to their marginalised status as a Dalit, as a woman and as a lower class.Doing so my focus is at specificities of violence, Violence faced by women in general which is within their families and is built around the family prestige, there by controlling womens sexuality for the purity of their lineage and superior status. whereas dalit women not only face violence from their own family and community also from the dominant caste forces who ensure their superiority and control over resource s by keeping the Lowest strata at its place who fit in to them are worth no social, economical and political rights.1.3 Problem StatementAccording to the 2001 census there are 167 million Dalits (referred to the census as scheduled castes) in India, who remain vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, and violence because of their socially marginal position assigned by Hindu social order. Indias hidden apartheid relegates Dalits to a life time of segregation and abuse. Caste-based divisions continue to dominate in housing, marriage, employment, and general social interactiondivisions that are reinforced through economic boycotts and physical violence (Hidden Apartheid 2007).The dalit woman faces Caste, grade and Gender discrimination because she is an untouchable, of a poor class and is a woman. (National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights 2006) Dalit women in India today number 80.517 million or approximately 48% of the total Dalit population, 16% of the total female population and 8% of the total Indian Population (Irudayam et al., 2006). They make majority of unorganised labourer in urban settings and landless labourers in rural. They face discrimination on a daily basis, as a Dalit, as women and as a poor they are in extremely vulnerable position. Systemic violence against Dalit women can be seen as a mechanism to keep Dalit in a subordinated position. It is built in to the total structure of the dominant society, which does not acknowledge the basic human rights of Dalit in general and Dalit women in particular.The 73rd -74th Amendments, former being for rural local bodies and afterward for urban local councils brought about radical changes in womens representation in local bodies. The method of co-option where women are elected for the reserved seats on the consensus of the members of local panchayat body or nomination, Balwant Rai Mehta committee report proposed two women representatives each from Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe to be co-opted, the se two procedures through which womens representation was ensured hitherto in the local bodies, has changed. Under the previous system, womens representation in local bodies was low and most women nominated to these bodies could hardly perform any functions. All the states except for Bihar (Santha, 1999) had conducted the elections to the local bodies in accordance with the 73rd-74th Amendments act, 1992 and almost one million women have been elected to the Panchayat Raj institutions and urban local bodies (I am stress only at 73rd constitutional amendment act 1992 and PRIs and not on urban councils covered by the 74th Amendment, where he dynamics are different). This brought about a social change in terms of the traditional role of women which used to be to take care of house hold chores and raise children and be inside the four walls all her life. Womens political empowerment finally seemed to be receiving some attention from both government and non-government organisations. Seri ous efforts are being made towards documenting womens political participation although it is limited to the local self government. Questions of feasibility remain unanswered such as womens active participation, hidden domination (gender blindness) for instance in the budgeting process but also even in considering women as political entities, many treated women elected through reservation as a temporary members in Local body. The consequences of assertion resulting in discouragement, fragmentation and discrimination inflicting violence are yet to explore.Violence against Dalit women is utilised to deny them opportunities, choices and freedoms at multiple levels, undermining not only dalit womens dignity and self respect, but also their right to develop.An intersectional caste violence and atrocities against Dalit women occur at two levels as an inherent part of the caste system whereby violence is utilised to reinforce caste norms and Dalit women are seen as legitimate target for al l forms of violence, especially sexual violence, and when they transgress caste norms, such as caste endogamy or untouchability norms, or assert their rights over resources, public spaces or cultural spaces. In other words, the process of Dalit womens empowerment itself is perceived as a challenge to caste and patriarchal structures, and provides fertile ground for punitive violence committed by dominant castes. (Irudayam et al., 2006)Factors such as socio-cultural notion of womens role act as impediments in effective political participation hindering political empowerment of Women When it comes to Dalit women these factors play much intense role and are specific for Dalit women due to their social status, denial and even no recognition to Dalit womens political rights result into violence.Cases such as denial from villagers for flag hoisting by Dalit women councillors on Independence Day, not being allowed to sit on the chair along with other members let alone talking in the meetin g, Ignoring while they talk, use of abusing and discriminatory language, and humiliation on daily basis are experienced by most of the Dalit women who participate as elected members in local political arena.After encountering this reality one would question that would the thousands years old socially, culturally, economically and most importantly politically entrenched patriarchal caste system ensured the representation of disadvantaged groups in politics?1.4 Rationale Being a Dalit and a WomanMy interest in the issue of Dalit Women comes from several different sources first and foremost me being a Dalit woman. Being brought up with this identity and background, I got exposure to the problem faced by elders of the family and community. I feel my study would contribute in critically assess structural inequality causing Dalit suppression and specifically of the Dalit women in local politics.In the name of social discipline, social balance and to maintain this social balance, Dalits in general and Dalit wom