![]()
The 73rd Amendment made in the Indian Constitution, in 1994, may be viewed as the culmination of various attempts towards decentralization of the highly centralized system of parliamentary democracy in India. It brought about a constitutional sanction to the system of local self-governance. The affirmative action of 33% reservation has proved to be a concrete step towards drawing women and deprived sections of society namely the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes into leadership positions and thereby into strategic decision-making, thus ensuring the presence of women in Local Bodies through mandating a minimum presence of 33% women members. This has created a threshold from where the women can voice their grievances and ensure basic rights like drinking water, health, education, shelter etc, within their communities, issues that were for long ignored by their male counterparts.
The Challenges
Today India has over Three million Elected Representatives in Local Self Governance, out of which over a million are women. The 73rd Amendment paved way for women's participation in governance, but that is not enough. Politics in India is still supposedly a male domain. Although, women enter Governance through a democratic election procedure but they are still treated as a titular heads not only by their male counterparts but also by the males in her family who are the brokers of decision-making.
The participation of Elected Women Representatives gets reduced further due to their ignorance and lack of clarity regarding their roles, rights and responsibilities. While laws have been passed empowering the Panchayats for local development, the critical component of capacity building of Elected Representatives is still inadequately addressed.
PRAGATI aims at building consciousness amongst the community as a whole and increasing their role and stake in Governance. The elements of accountability, transparency and contestability, supplemented with Rights and responsibility, are required to be reflected for Good Governance.