Date
09-Dec-2021 to 09-Dec-2021 		Location
Virtual		 Format
PRIA@40

With rise of electoral democracies around the world after the second world war, and from 1990s onwards, women’s political leadership began to emerge from the shadows. Over the past three decades, percentage of women in parliaments has been steadily increasing in electoral democracies around the world. As per the Interparliamentary Union – IPU statistics the global average of women in parliament  is now 25.58 percent - top three countries representing global south (As on 2020).

While percentage of women in South Asian parliaments (average of 17.6 percent), including India (14.4 percent) and except for Nepal (32.7 percent), remains under global average, women’s representation at the local governments is amongst the world highest in South Asia.

In India, a major impetus for this came with the 73rd and 74th  constitutional amendments in 1992 that mandated one-third of all elected positions in all local governance institutions to be occupied by women, in rotation, every five years. Since then, women occupy more than half (nearly 1.5 million) of all the elected positions in rural panchayats and urban municipalities in . At the time of constitutional amendment, the expectations regarding women’s increasing political roles were high – it was said that even if one percent would make it from local to state or national level that would mean adding nearly 15,000 new women leaders in the leadership pool.

Over these three decades, many government agencies and civil society organisations have worked closely to strengthen and support substantive women’s leadership in local governance. A large number of public-private partnerships have been attempted to create safe and enabling spaces for participation, agency and voice of elected women in governance institutions and mechanisms. The positive results of these efforts have been more visible in rural panchayats than in urban municipalities; experience shows that women’s leadership at the local level has also resulted into gender-responsive outcomes.

Yet, broader pool for women’s political leadership at national level has not emerged. Mobility of high-performing women leaders in local governance to higher tiers of provincial or national governance institutions has been limited. Persistent societal discrimination against women’s independent leadership including violence against women in politics has obstructed broadening and deepening of gender equality in governance in South Asia.

Notwithstanding, during the pandemic the track-record of women’s political leadership, from local to national levels, has been quite remarkable. Many elected women leaders of local governments played critical roles in supporting their constituencies during the sudden lockdown in 2020.

Despite these important gains, major stakeholders in governance institutions like non-elected male officials, male leadership in political parties among others  seem reluctant to support integrating gender perspectives and leadership in all tiers and instruments of governance.

As a part of PRIA@40 conversation series, this Samvad is aimed to reflect on the following questions:

  1. Why is it that the strong representation of women at the local governments has not transformed to increased representation at the state/national level?
  2. Which approaches, models and methods have been effective in supporting independent and strong leadership of women in governance institutions? Any lessons learnt from other countries?
  3. What further actions may be needed to broaden and increase women’s mobility from local to province and/or national arena?

 

For more detailed webinar report: Click here

For webinar recording: Click here