No one can stop an idea whose time has come. Reservation in Local Bodies for women? Yes. Without a doubt. And that would only be the beginning.
Ayo J. Aier
Senior Advocate
The idea of reservation of seats for women at different levels of State and society has always been there. However, it has now become inevitable. Reservation of seats will happen sooner or later. It is better that it be sooner because the contentiousness such issues generate leave residual schisms in society. Look back at what it did to the American people on the issue of slavery in the nineteenth century. The blood shed and division this unjustifiable practice brought to the American nation ripped it apart into South and North. Surely, we can take a leaf out of history and avoid such schism in the Naga society at this juncture on the issue of reservation for women.
Is the issue of reservation of seats for women as serious as the issue of slavery?. Yes. If you consider the ramifications of a society which excludes all members from amongst 50% of its citizens belonging to one sex. The popular notion about gender issues is so entrenched that it was only as recent as a decade ago that the United Nations recognized that ‘women’s rights are human rights’. All this after many decades of the recognition in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So it took no less a body than the United Nations to pronounce that women are human beings and women rights are human rights!
Notwithstanding the historical and contextual validity in the Naga society of the male being the head of the family unit from the earliest days, the facts today reveal that:
• Naga women make up a significant percentage of the Government work force.
• They account for the majority of workers in the unorganized sector, especially the unwaged workers.
• They have acquired technical and professional degrees and skills and are manning many such posts.
• They have entered the civil and allied services at the National and States levels.
• They have contributed immensely to the social sector.
• Their presence and contribution to the Church life has been acknowledged.
• They are sole bread earners in a substantial number of households although their number is not statistically known.
• They have shouldered the task of nation building along with their male counterparts.
• They have entered the public arena on their own merit (although much is left to be desired).
Having said that, it is still not easy for women to enjoy their tentative rights without which it also becomes difficult for them to contribute fully to the development of our society. This is where the principle of positive discrimination enters. The concept of positive discrimination is not new. It has evolved considerably and been applied by Governments the world over. It is based on the basic principle that historical, social, economic and political inequalities exist in our society leading to serious marginalization of some citizens or a class of citizens in the country, necessitating positive discrimination to uplift their condition vis-à-vis the other citizens. Seen in our context, who can deny that Naga women are in need of positive discrimination?
Consider some facts to decide whether Naga women need reservation in Local Bodies:
• The access of women, the majority of them in rural areas to education, health, credit, productive resources etc. is woefully inadequate though they constitute the bulk of the work force in agriculture.
• There is an alarming increase in violence against women including the girl child and female infants.
• Feminization of poverty.
• Existing gender inequalities are present everywhere due to patriarchal, social and economic structures.
• There is total absence of women in customary and traditional bodies which are vital dispensers of justice and which provide governance at the grass root level.
• The conflict situation in the State has not allowed the special needs of women to be addressed.
• Social stereo-typing continues to seriously hamper women’s development.
• The menace of HIV/AIDs has affected the health and development of women in particular but a gender perspective is lacking while dealing with this issue.
The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. However, the situational reality of the status of Naga women (indeed, other women in India too) is dismal and frightening and requires legislations, policies, plans, programmes and related mechanism if the present scenario is to be arrested and taken into a positive direction. To start with, the State may mandate through legislation a minimum of ¼ women reservation in the Village Councils and Village Development Boards, Town/Municipal Committees, District and State Planning Boards, Nagaland Public Service Commission. After all, the policy should be to encourage active participation of all stake holders for advancement of our society. To achieve this goal, gender equality and gender justice are imperative for women.
The caveat that must be added is that women will hopefully not carry on with the same system of corruption that has become an inevitable part of the male dominated politics and style of governance today. We may look at only one such case, the Jayalalitha Government in Tamil Nadu today. Although her case has many thrilling highlights and she had come to power against great odds, what is disappointing is that she has used and abused the same system of corruption that her male counterparts have been using to come to power and retain in power. She has perpetuated this system further instead of bringing about healthy changes that a woman’s perspective could have wrought in politics at the State and National levels. Hopefully, this will not be the case with Naga women when they come to the arena of power through reservation of seats in Local Bodies. It is encouraging to learn that the Governor of Nagaland has returned the Nagaland Municipal (1st Amendment) Bill, 2005 for reconsideration to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly reportedly due to the failure to make provision for reservation of seats for women. No one can stop an idea whose time has come. Reservation in Local Bodies for women? Yes. Without a doubt. And that would only be the beginning.
Reservation is a passive and one-dimensional tool of empowerment... we may simply end up feminizing crime and corruption if women remain content to play the rules set by men already in power
Along Longkumer
Editor, The Morung Express
Since women constitute almost 50% of the State’s population, efforts at nation building would have to take into consideration in full measure and proper perspective, the role and contribution of women in the noble task of the State’s development. While there have been various shifts in policy approaches during the last 20 years from the concept of welfare in the 70’s to development in the 80’s and now to empowerment in the 90’s, much more attention needs to be given for inclusion of women in decision making and their participation at the policy formulation levels. The issue however is whether reservation of one-third seats in the State Legislature and here more precisely in local Municipal bodies is the right way to go about ensuring women’s participation in decision making.
The proposed amendment for 33% reservation for women in local bodies is not the best way to tackle the problem of women’s marginalization in politics. While it may bring about a quantitative jump in the proportion of women in municipal bodies, will it also lead to the improved quality of governance in these bodies? We may simply end up feminizing crime and corruption if women remain content to play the rules set by men already in power rather than working to change them in ways that will make our governing structures more democratic and inclusive of all.
The right way to go about would be through empowerment within political parties. For empowerment in elective bodies to succeed, women’s representation within parties must significantly increase by consciously elevating women to leadership positions. This has to emerge out of the political process itself. This in turn calls for greatly increasing women’s participation in all types of political and social activity. It is this bottoms-up rather than the top-down approach to empowerment which can truly release the immense regenerative power of women in our society. The present base of politically active women in our society is marginal and almost non-existent. The biggest challenge before political parties and also women’s organization is to expand and deepen the political base. This calls for supportive action at the familial and societal levels. It has been the universal experience of women who wish to participate outside the traditional household that they face discouragement and even active resistance from the male dominated society. For this, there is also the need for attitudinal change to realize the need of creating equal opportunities for both men and women in our political landscape.
A sudden change in the status of woman in society cannot be brought by enacting a bill. Without real empowerment the situation will be akin to driving from the back seat as proxy power centers. That there are only a few women legislators in the United States Congress and in the UK, the mother of all Parliaments, does not imply that women of these countries are not empowered.
Empowerment of women through the artificial mechanism of reservation should not be the concern at present. The real issue is to ensure fair representation to women’s viewpoint on issues in the political and decision making fora.
The anomaly in reserving seats for women as experienced in other States also suffers from some serious flaws. Even though there is no law prohibiting women from contesting from general constituencies, a fixed reservation will ghettoize women. It is highly unlikely that any political party would be willing to field additional women candidates once special women’s constituencies are earmarked. In such a scenario women will be forever pitched against other women in electoral battles where they will view each other as rivals rather than as potential allies to work on issues of common concern. Further, reserved constituencies for women (already operating at the grass-root level in other States) are selected through a draw of lots, which means their constituencies will keep changing after every election. As such women candidate elected would have no incentive to nurse their constituencies. This could make them unaccountable. Lastly, the proposed reservation for women will be out of tune with the ground realities since women would not be able to contest a fair election keeping in mind the growing nexus between politics-crime-muscle power-gun culture and violence. Rather than reservation, what is required are electoral reforms. The Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA) had in fact recently mooted the idea for a comprehensive reform of the electoral process in a recent resolution passed at Meluri, Phek during its General Assembly.
Reservation of seats for women in local bodies here in Nagaland at present would therefore raise more questions. The only alternative would be for the political parties to fix a certain minimum ratio of seats for candidates belonging to these groups during the time of elections. In this way they would become familiar with issues of governance at the grass root level.
In most other countries instead of reserving women’s quota in legislatures all major political formations commit themselves to ensuing substantial representation to women in every decision making party forum. We should take a similar route to make it mandatory for each part to give due representation to women in all their decision making bodies thereby facilitating their entry into legislatures on their own. This is a more honorable way of improving representation of women both in the State legislature and local municipal bodies. Naga women, I believe need not be passive recipients rather they can be active participants in the development process.
Reservation which is a passive and one-dimensional tool of empowerment may not be the right way to address the issue of women’s representation in local bodies. Rather policy makers should display sufficient will to implement development measures in a rational, scientific manner so that it benefits this segment of our society in a more meaningful way.
(The writer’s opinion is a personal analysis and may not represent the views of this newspaper)
