Eleventh Five Year Plan

198 Eleventh Five Year Planhave demonstrated the government’s commitment toincrease women’s grass roots political participation.Although only one-third of seats were reserved forwomen by the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments,the actual representation is higher at all levels.Women’s increased political participation has yieldeda range of positive results, not only for women, butalso for their families and communities. Central issuesin development such as health, nutrition, family income,and education are finding their way to the topof the agenda for action. Women’s participation bringsabout more inclusive governance and effective community-centreddevelopment. Yet in many places,especially in States like UP, Bihar, and Rajasthan,women continue to serve as proxies. The challenge forthe Eleventh Plan is to ensure that women panchayatmembers are empowered to take their own decisions.6.66 The Eleventh Plan will undertake the followingmeasures to accelerate the process of women’s politicalempowerment and participation in PRIs:• The no-confidence clause is often used to removewomen sarpanches. State governments will beadvised to ensure that women sarpanches cannotbe removed for at least a year and a half by a noconfidencemotion. If a no-confidence vote is passed,the replacing incumbent should also be a womanfrom the same social group as the earlier incumbent;• States should revisit the two-child norm laws thatprevent those who have more than two children fromholding office. This law has been repealed acrosssome States because it was found to be used againstwomen in that it disproportionately impacted poor,SC, ST, Muslim, and tribals. More tragically, thenorm led to increasing female foeticide;• Increase resource allocation for capacity building ofall PRI members (male and female) in diverse areaspertaining to gender sensitization and women’srights, as well as in the political skill-building ofwomen members of PRIs;• Greater effort to include poor and other excludedwomen on State Planning Boards and Commissions;• Funds for time-series evaluations of the impactof women on PRIs, and on enabling policy conditionsand contextual factors for women’s politicalparticipation;• Accelerate the State Governments’ process ofdevolution and decentralization of powers, so thatPRIs are not handicapped in carrying out theirmandated duties.EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF WOMEN-RELATEDLEGISLATIONS6.67 During the Tenth Plan period, some importantlegislations have been passed and amended. For example,besides the Hindu Succession (Amendment)Act 2005 and PWDVA 2005 mentioned earlier, theDowry Prohibition Act was reviewed. A very active civilsociety has been relentlessly campaigning on theseBox 6.8Panchayat Women: Ground RealitiesTill some time back, Kanjiguzhy village panchayat in Allepey district of Kerala was a backward area of the district. Today ithas an annual turnover of over Rs 10 crore, thanks to an active Panchayat Samiti headed by a dynamic woman pradhan JalajaChandra. Ask her about the number of families in her area, number of SHGs, employment statistics, net profit, amount spenton different development works and she answers confidently. It is not difficult to see why this village has prospered. Kotlivillage in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab is headed by Paramjeet Kaur who has managed to convince her villagers to lettheir girl children live. So in a district that made headlines for having the worst child sex ratio in the country, Kotli now boastsof a positive sex ratio. While these and many such women have clearly demonstrated what political empowerment of womencan achieve, in many parts of the country woman panchayat members are yet to get their due.In Bhimra village of Barmer district of Rajasthan, the sarpanch is a woman. She never opens her mouth; it is always thehusband who speaks. The fate of her ghoonghat-clad counterpart in a Kol village in eastern UP is no different. Here the Pradhanpatimakes all decisions. In Bihar, power rests with the MPs and SPs—Mukhiyapatis and Sarpanchpatis i.e. husbands of womenMukhyas and Sarpanches. In Ongna village of Udaipur district (Rajasthan), the women panchayat members rue the day theywere elected. ‘We have no powers; we are never allowed to attend meetings. When villagers come and ask us why we haven’tdone anything, what do we say?’ they question.