India’s parliament sees women leaders championing the politics of equality

The citizens of the Indian sub-continent saw a new dawn in 2019 when India had a 14% representation of women in the House, a welcome and much needed growth from the first election where only 5% of the House consisted of women. According to the Census in 2011, about 48% of our population is female and it is only apt that we witness growth in women’s representation. The steady increase has been lauded by the socially aware generation of today which expects inclusivity from the leadership of the country. While we are still far away from the debatable 33% ideal representation of women in the House, it is important to not forget the little milestones we achieve on the way.

The 78 women leaders elected in 2019 Lok Sabha elections to represent the voice of half the population of India came from diverse backgrounds bringing in the interests of their voters with them. A frequent question that is asked is why push for women? Why have seats reserved? The intersectionality of race, gender, caste, religion and so on often takes gender as a base where women are seen as commodities to be attacked or used to send across a message. The cumulative effect of being from a marginalised community AND being a woman in that community essentially means there could be discrimination for a number of reasons. For example, a Dalit woman is harmed because she is a woman AND a member of the Dalit community. Be it religious minorities, the lower-caste in our country, or the trans community. Research shows that being a trans woman puts one more at risk of abuse and assault.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance that we don’t just have an adequate but diverse representation of women across all walks of life. The MPs elected this time show they are trying to bring more inclusivity and diversity in our leadership. Ms Pramila Bisoyi of Odisha is a grassroots self-help group activist. Hailing from rural Odisha, the 70-year old stood against all the stereotypes of what an elite leader should look like. Mrs Bisoyi’s life was no different from the lives of most girls from economically weaker sections of the society, she had to drop out of school after Grade III. While schooling stopped for her, nobody could stop her from learning. She continues to reside in her modest tin-roofed house and believes that her representation needs to reflect in her work and not her quality of living. An advocate of women empowerment ever since she was a child bride, Pramila Bisoyi continues writing songs on women empowerment and singing them. From representing the women in her area, she is now responsible for SHGs for over 70 lakh women.

In contrast, Mahua Moitra is an investment banker from London who returned to the country and joined politics. Representing the modern-day corporate working women, Mahua was fiery in her maiden speech and introduced the idea of an Opposition in the Parliament which was missing for long. Standing up for the interests of the people, and not just a political party, set her apart as a Leader. A gifted orator who also strongly opposed the culture of heckling in the Parliament, as that potentially dilutes the quality of sessions, is something the Parliament hadn’t seen for a while. While few may know this, the liberty we enjoy on social media is a result of Moitra’s petition which led to the Centre withdrawing its proposal for a social media hub which could allegedly keep a tab on the activities of citizens on the internet.

It may seem like we have a healthy representation of women across the economic pyramid, it doesn’t hold true in the interests of the minorities of the country. The MPs representing Muslim women for that matter are too few and almost make you squint trying to find more because the ratio just doesn’t add up. The first 5 Lok Sabhas since Independence had no Muslim women members and the number doesn’t go above 4, ever. Right now, we only have 2 MPs representing the interests of Muslim women in India. At a time when The Triple Talaq Bill was introduced in the Parliament, speakers debated amongst themselves about passing it. Strangely, not one of those speakers was a Muslim woman. Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan founder says “In our application to the Supreme Court, we had asked for a ban on not just triple talaq, but also polygamy and halala (a practice under which a divorced wife who wishes to remarry her former husband must first consummate an intervening marriage). Unfortunately, the court only heard us on triple talaq and not the other two issues.” It is important to acknowledge that right now as a country, we don’t have the bandwidth to do justice to these because the voices of those who are directly impacted are barely reaching us. Therefore, the onus lies on the parties to field more candidates and provide them with adequate support to ensure equity in opportunity.

Trans-women too, fail to find their representation in the Parliament. While 4 trans women contested the polls independently, Aam Aadmi Party led by by fielding a trans woman as their nominee in 2019. The recent debate in the wake of the Transgender Persons’ (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019 was a reality check on how lack of representation subdues the interest of beneficiaries. An article quotes Grace Banu, a transwoman activist who called the bill “a murder of gender justice.” The 2019 election faired much better in terms of inclusivity for women but it simply is not enough yet. The social stigma of seeing a transwoman as their leader terrifies many, because of the archaic societal definition of women getting challenged. It is of utmost importance to ensure that we see representation from the community in the future to create a role-model effect and a better system of governance. On a brighter note, what brings us solace is Jothimani Sennimalai’s presence in the Parliament, a woman MP from Karur. A cis-woman from the Dalit community, Jothimani got into politics to systemically fight the injustice that was meted out to her community because of the caste system. Sennimalai is also a strong supporter of the trans community and has time and again argued that the right to choose is fundamental to every citizen and the systems in place should protect the choice instead of attacking it. Sennimalai is a breath of fresh air for women across all strata of the socio-economic pyramid as she takes on issues which many would avert. She has also never hesitated to address mental health issues that sometimes plague our leaders too and asserted time and again that mental health isn’t an optional component of health, but fundamental to it.

The Lok Sabha now has women from varied backgrounds foraying into politics through their resolve to improve governance. The leaders come from all walks of life — a rural woman, an investment banker, a lawyer, an actress, a veterinary leader in politics, who are championing the interests of each of their communities. The rise in the representation of Dalit women is note-worthy and glimmers as a beacon of hope for better days in the political arena for women. To put things into perspective as to why it is important and an absolute win to have Dalit women representing their communities in the Centre, the top 10% of India’s Upper Caste own 60% of the wealth. A paper by Chandrapal Singh Chauhan on Education and Caste in the Indian context evaluates how Dalits are under-represented in educational institutes and therefore grossly under-represented in positions of power where qualifications play a vital role.

What also remains a concern is the tokenism in Indian politics. Women are often given a ticket to contest elections to satisfy the reservation criteria by their ambitious spouse/party leader- who makes all the decisions. The classic backseat driving is what plagues politics in India even now. Rabri Devi is an example of this tokenism. Pulled from her household to contest for the position of Chief Minister in Bihar, Rabri Devi became a household name at a time when her husband Laloo Prasad Yadav was grappling with the investigations of fodder scam. Although she won the elections, it was Laloo who continued to act as the de facto Chief Minister of Bihar and called all the shots in the State while using his wife as a ticket to provide him access to power. The argument is therefore steered towards whether or not representation, and diversity in representation, make any difference when tokenism plagues the sphere anyway? The answer to that is a definite yes. Firstly, the lived experiences of women across diverse strata cannot ever be adequately expressed by someone who has read it or heard second-hand accounts of it. Most importantly, seeing women as leaders and as role models, push the younger generation towards breaking the image of only men as leaders. The political representation acts as an enabler to a range of possibilities that have been buried under layers of misogyny for women. The tokenism is a democratic deficit and brings down the status of women as puppets who cannot be trusted to make their own decision, but that is a fundamental flaw which arises out of societies’ discomfort with seeing women leading, and therefore if we stop representation on all accounts, it is dialling back progress by many years. Instead, the conversations need to be around designing checks that would stop the culture of tokenism in Indian politics. The judiciary has played a great role in putting a stop to tokenism in politics and further having clear penalties for the same could be a great check, to begin with. That’s an institutional check which can be used to treat the symptom that tokenism is, but the underlying disease of gender roles are deeply embedded in our culture and therefore society as a whole needs to consciously argue against the prejudices women encounter in their daily lives.

Women Empowerment is a word that is interpreted in ways more than one depending upon the context but, there is no denying that a fundamental part of empowerment lies in enabling leadership for women across the diverse spectrum.