Spotlight

New Delhi, 9 December 2016

Social Change

A TASTE OF WOMEN POWER

By Moin Qazi

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman. ---Margaret Thatcher

It has been over 20 years since the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts - termed as post-Independent India’s most revolutionary exercise in democratic decentralisation and devolution of power - were passed by Parliament. These mandated that one-third seats in all local governments be reserved for women. The biggest significance of women’s reservation was that it unlocked the power, talent and determination of millions of women for driving a new social change that would redefine the contours of rural society.

Today we can see visible gains of that piece of legislation --1.2 million village women are making their entry into public life every five years. Many of them are unlettered but they use their quotidian wisdom and sharp instincts to steer development in their communities.

As Gandhi stated: “Panchayat Raj represents true democracy realised. We would regard the humblest and the lowest Indian as being equally the ruler of India with the tallest in the land.” Gandhi wanted to see each village a little republic, self-sufficient in its vital wants, organically and non-hierarchically linked with the larger spatial bodies and enjoying the maximum freedom of deciding the affairs of the locality.

It is now an item of faith for planners that for addressing gender issues we need to change social dynamics, and this won’t happen without women’s fuller involvement in all major spheres-education, economy, politics and governance. We have for long made paternalistic decision to “protect” these women, thereby eliminating their ability to solve issues that they face. Why couldn’t they decide for themselves how to address their issues? Why couldn’t we equip them to   make their own decisions? Panchayat Raj is another name for this agency or power.

The devolution of power was not so seamless and was beset with several hassles and it had to ride several storms before it could settle down. This is not unusual. All revolutions are marked by tremors and seismic changes. But the growing pains now seem to be ebbing. Elected women heads of village councils have been gaining control and several of them are now able to bring about visible development.

Women have catalysed change in large swathes of rural India. This is despite the fact that female leaders had low literacy levels and socio-economic status, and little experience, ambition or political prospects until they assume leadership positions.

During my recent visit to villages, where I had worked as a banker almost a decade back, I found local campaigns to share basic resources like land and water, to build schools, trading co-operatives and credit movements, and to make the Government accountable at the highest and lowest levels. These are the small revolutions that are changing the world. Women leaders today are more than just mouthpieces for their politically savvy husband. For most women reserved posts offer the only real opportunity to bring change to their communities.

In Wanoja village in northern Maharashtra, Nirmal Geghate, a development activist whom I mentored, was elected as Sarpanch without a contest. I was wonderstruck by the transformation she has brought about. There’s a bank, a school, women are out of the house and working on village improvement projects such as sanitation systems and vegetable gardens. They have started small businesses. People eat more nutritious food, they use mosquito nets and repellents to ward off mosquitoes. They know they must boil water for drinking to protect the family from water-borne diseases.

Even more remarkable is the social transformation that the movement has wrought. No one drinks. Only a handful smoke! There hasn’t been a crime here in years. Even the practice of untouchability has weakened. The village is brisk and prosperous. Signs of rural modernity abound.

 “We think this is due to a role-model effect: Seeing women in charge persuaded parents and teens that women can run things, and increased their ambitions. Changing perceptions and giving hope can have an impact on reality”, says Nirmala.

It is not that women are purer than men or immune to the pull of greed. But there is almost a certainty that women will channel money into solving more fundamental issues and avoid grandiose schemes that may be for the good of just the elite. When men control all the levers of money there is more likelihood that it will be invested in big-ticket construction projects such as road building where corruption is rife, rather than in schools or clinics.

“It's about changing the gender imbalance and then we could do a better job of tackling our problems. From what we can glean, you can tell this would have a salutary effect,” repeats Nirmala. Anecdotal evidence supports the view that with more women in public office the quality of government improves, and with that corruption falls.

The World Bank’s annual World Development Report has credited the new governance for increasing the provision of clean water, sanitation, schools and other public goods in the villages, and for lower levels of corruption. The communities with women as pradhans (head) had larger quantities of key public services overall. Nor was quality sacrificed for quantity—facilities in the women-led villages were of at least as high quality on average as in the communities with traditional male leadership.

The lesson of PRI is clear: if the wisdom of women at the grassroots is to become policy, it will have to be by restructuring of a political system that brings their voice on the dialogue and negotiating table. Bringing women into power is thus not only a matter of equity but also of correcting an unjust and unrepresentative system.

Many believe that the removal of poverty, the improvement of particularly female literacy, improvement in health of girl children, the achievement of full employment and social integration cannot be effectively addressed without the kind of democratisation of the representative process that we are seeing in rural India. Political restructuring is key to economic growth with justice.

During my entire professional life in which I have connected with a vast spectrum of communities of   women, I found they have both the instinct and determination to bring about a change in their own families and in communities around them. All they need is opportunity. Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity. These women inspire us, and they serve as good examples of how millions of brave and industrious women are working their way up the ladder, with dignity and pride. --- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)