NOTE: This joint paper was published in a Journal published by P. G. Department of Public Administration, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar, Orrisa. ISSN: 2249-3360. It can be cited as -
Renu and Meenakshi, Image
of Scheduled Caste Women in Panchayati Raj : Punjab Experience, Public Administration Review, Vol.
no. 13, 2012, pp. 36-43.
Image of Scheduled Caste Women in Panchayati Raj:
Punjab Experience
Dr. Renu
Associate Professor & Head,
Department of Public Administration,
Punjabi University, Patiala.
Scheduled
Caste (SC) women have been the victims of social and physical discrimination
since ages in India. Scheduled Castes women have been subjected to discrimination
in the caste- ridden Indian society and a gender bias within their own
Scheduled Caste community. This two-fold oppression and exploitation drove them
to the periphery. But this is only one side of the story. It is worth
mentioning an equally important aspect of Scheduled Caste women, i.e. their enormous
resilience with which they continued to carry on their lives, the lives of
their families, the struggle of their community, despite insurmountable
hardships and hurdles. After Independence, efforts were made to extend benefits
of development to them not by merely putting them at the receiving ends but by
making them partner in the development process by associating them in local
bodies. At rural level, Panchayati Raj (PR) in India made an attempt to ensure
their participation either through co-option or through the direct election. In
this process, the passage of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992
with a mandatory clause for reservation for SC women in PRIs can rightly be
hailed as a giant leap towards facilitating SC women’s participation in
grassroots politics. It aimed at empowering
SC women to become important partners in the decision-making process of local
affairs in the modern India. Punjab, like other states, also gave reservation
to SC women in seats at all the three tiers of Panchayati Raj institutions.
Scheduled Caste Women and Panchayati Raj in India: A Historical
Perspective
Before
discussing the entry of SC women in PR in India and particularly the Punjab
state in the historical perspective, it is imperative to understand that the
term Scheduled Caste. In the last
more than 60 years, the term Scheduled
Caste has become the official identifier of the erstwhile untouchables or
the exterior caste. The expression Scheduled
Caste was first coined by the Simon Commission and embodied in the
Government of India Act 1935. In 1936 for the first time, the Government of
British India published a list of Scheduled Castes.1 Scheduled Castes
can be taken as such castes, races or tribes or parts or groups which are
treated as outcastes, exterior castes,
depressed castes, untouchables, Harijans and Dalits. The other name of Scheduled
Castes as Dalit is derived from the Sanskrit
root 'Dal' which means to break or crack
etc. and ‘Dalit’ means broken, split
and downtrodden. The Scheduled Castes are castes identified by the President of
India under Article 341 of the Constitution and are put under a Schedule.
Article 341 of our Constitution says, "The President may with respect to any
State or Union Territory, after consultation with the Governor thereof, by
public notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts or groups
within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purpose of this Constitution
be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as
the case may be.”
In
India, women have been deprived from availing various kinds of opportunities
and advantages by our traditional/orthodox society for the past several
centuries. Discrimination against women is commonly observed in the opportunities
of socio-economic development, participation in different activities and
development programmes and availing the opportunities of various facilities, which
are directly and indirectly linked with bringing improvement in the life style
and the quality of life because of prevailing several social and cultural
backwardness.2
In the Pre-Vedic period and Vedic
period, women occupied superior place as there was equality, education, no purdah system, they could marry a man of
their choice. But later on, the condition of women became worse. Hindu Dharma Shastras and customs had already
paved the way for their complete subordination in male dominated society. Women
were deprived of property rights; they were supposed to worship their husband
as God, and dowry and Sati system misguided
the dignity and freedom of the women.3
Since
there can be no true democracy, no true people's participation in governance
and development without the equal participation of women with men in all
spheres of life and level of decision making, demand for women's franchise was
initiated in 1917 when a deputation of Indian women led by Sarojini Naidu presented
to the British Parliament a demand for the enfranchisement of women on the
basis of equality of men. As a result of in 1919, under the Montaque-Chelmsford
Reforms, about 10 lakh women obtained the voting rights. However, women
exercised their franchise for the first time only in 1932. Till 1926, no women
ever got into Legislature. Muthulakshmi Reddy of Madras, a dedicated social
worker, was the first woman to be nominated to the Madras Legislative Council
and she was also elected as the Deputy Chairperson of the Council.4
In 1931, women voiced demand for universal adult franchise but are said to have
opposed reservation, nomination or cooption for women.
After
India became independent, equal voting rights were given to men and women. However,
it was disappointing that the PRIs did not get that place of prime importance
in the newly made Constitution of India as was expected by Indian people from
their own govt. after a long Bitish rule. On the insistence of Mahatma Gandhi,
Panchayats found mention in the Constitution of India but that too, only in the
Directive Principles of State Policy as Article 40. It states, "The state
shall take steps to organise village Panchayats and to endow them with such
powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of
self government.5
The inclusion of the village
communities in the state legislature led to the states framing the Panchayat
Act(s) to start rural development programmes e.g. the Firka Development Scheme
Madras 1946, the Etawa Pilot Project, Uttar Pradesh 1948, the Sarvodaya Scheme
1948-49 Bombay. In 1952, the Government of India introduced the Community
Development Programmes (CDP) and National Extension Service Programme (NESP) in
1953. But the CDP and NESP considerably failed, especially in mobilising the
rural masses to participate in the programme. As a result, the govt. appointed
the Balwant Rai Mehta committee (1957) in order to identify the drawbacks and
the weaknesses of CDP and NESP and to suggest remedial measures. The committee
recommended new structure for the Panchayats: A three tier PR system with Gram
Panchayats (GPs) at the village level, Panchayat Samitis (PSs) at the block
level and Zila Parishad (ZPs) at the district level. Rajasthan was the first
state to adopt the new Panchayati Raj in 1959 followed by Karnataka and Orissa.6
The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957) considered the conditions of rural women
at length and felt that they should be assisted to find ways to increase their
incomes and improve the condition of their children. The Committee was
particular that women should find representation in the rural political institutions.
It recommended the co-option of women members to the PRIs.7 The Committee
made provision for the co-option of two women members and one member each from Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Further,
Ashok Mehta team (1977) suggested regarding participation of women in elections
that two women securing the highest number of votes among the women candidates
in the election could take the seat reserved for them. Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh and Bengal became the first states in the country to introduce the
policy of reservation for women in PRIs. They provided for 25% reservation for
women at Zila Parishad and Mandal Panchayat level. Later on, the National Perspective
Plan in 1988 recommended 30% reservation for women at local bodies. The Committee
recommendation was finally materialized when through 64th
Constitution Amendment Bill in 1989 when the then Prime Minister Sh. Rajiv
Gandhi made a provision for 30% reservation of seats for women in Panchayats at
all the three levels in this Bill. But this historic attempt to give a
constitutional status to PRIs failed as this 64th Amendment Bill
could not be passed in the Parliament. The issue was again taken up by V.P
Singh Govt. who introduced 72nd Amendment Bill but Bill was not even
discussed and meanwhile the govt. collapsed.
But
in 1991, the then PM Sh. P.V. Narasimha Rao again introduced the Bill in the
Lok Sabha as 73rd Constitutional Amendment and significantly,
despite having a minority govt. at the centre, Rao could get this bill passed
in 1993. It can be termed as a momentous golden moment in the history of
Panchayati Raj in independent India because for the first time, PRIs were given
a constitutional status. It is important to bring spotlight on how this 73rd
Amendment Act, 1992 affected the women in general and SC women in particular in
PR.
In the context of women functionaries of PRIs,
a major change that has taken place since the passage of the 73rd
Constitutional Amendment Act 1992 is political representation of women,
including SC women through reservation. Under Article 243D of the 73rd
Constitutional Amendment Act 1992, seats are now reserved for general category women
and women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as given below:
1. Seats shall be reserved for -
a)
the Scheduled Castes; and
b)
the Scheduled Tribes
in every Panchayat and the number of seats
so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total
number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Panchayat as the
population of the Scheduled Castes in the Panchayat area or of the Scheduled
Tribes in that Panchayat area bears to the total population of that area and
such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in
Panchayat.
2. Not less than one-third of the total
number of seats reserved under clause (1) shall be reserved for women belonging
to the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes.
- Not less than
one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to
the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes) of the total number of
seats to be filled by direct election in every Panchayat shall be reserved
for women and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different
constituencies in Panchayat.
- The offices of
Chairpersons in the Panchayat at the village or any other level shall be
reserved for the Scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes and women in such
manner as the legislature of a state may, by law, provide…
As a result, about one million women entered in the first elections of
Panchayats after 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act. About 40% of the
elected women represented the marginalized sections. About 70% women
representatives were illiterate and most of them had no previous political
experience.8 It is indeed heartening to know that the central
government has recently cleared a constitutional amendment to reserve 50% of
seats for women at all tiers of Panchayats. The proposed amendment will
increase the reservation for women to 50% in Zila Parishads, Panchayat Samitis
and Gram Panchayats at the district, block and village levels respectively.
Article 243D of the Constitution that currently provides for at least 33%
reservation for women in Panchayats will be amended to provide for the enhanced
reservation. With the passage of this amendment, every second member of India’s
village Panchayats will be a woman. Already five states – Bihar, Chattisgarh,
Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand – have 50% reservation for
women. Rajasthan has also announced 50% reservation to be implemented in the
Panchayat elections in early 2010.
At
present, women account for 36.87% of the total 28.1 lakh elected Panchayat
representatives. On implementation of raised reservation the number of elected
women’s representatives at the grassroots level is expected to rise to more
than 14 lakhs.9 Thanks to the reservation provided to them, the SC
women were able to join PRIs as leaders in a big way in the post-73rd
Amendment Act, 1992 period and this
is definitely a encouraging development in the context of position of SC women
in PRIs who have been suffering at the lowest rung of caste hierarchy in India.
SC Women in PRIs: Punjab Experience
As Punjab is
the state which has the maximum proportion of SC population in the whole of
India (above 28%), it is worth examining the position of SC women in Panchayati
Raj System in this state. Punjab has
three regions: Malwa, Doaba and Majha. Out
of these, the largest concentration of SCs is in Doaba region. Punjab is considered
one of the most prosperous states of India. It is very interesting to note that
Punjab’s caste hierarchy is unique in the sense that here at the top of caste
hierarcy are Jats and not Brahmins as in other states of India. “Very
influence or near absence of Brahminism” has resulted in very less practice of
untouchability.10 However, SCs remained at the lowest level of caste
hierarchy and had to put up with exploitation, atrocities and backwardness for
long. It is extremely shameful to find manual scavenging still prevalent in the
eight districts of a prosperous and fast developing state like Punjab though it
has been declared an offence by an act in 1993.11 If we look at the
position of SC females, it was no different and in fact, worse due to gender
discrimination at home as well as outside. Though the literacy rate in SC
females is quite good in Punjab yet the Punjabi society is still very
narrow-minded and biased towards females even in general. Female foeticide is a
problem with alarming dimensions here. No wonder, one of the worst sex-ratio rates
have been reported from Punjab in the whole country according to the Population
Census of 2011 also.
In this perspective, the appalling position of the SC women in society
can be understood and rising from here, the SC women came to Panchayats also
thanks to legislative measures. Panchayati Raj was introduced with the passing
of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952. In this Act, there is provision that if
no woman is elected as a Panch of any Gram Panchayat, a women member of the
Sabha, who is qualified to be so elected, shall be co-opted as a panch by the
Panchayat. In this Act of 1952, there are also provisions regarding Scheduled
Castes as:
- Every Gram
Panchayat shall have one Panch belonging to SC if their Population is five
percent of the Gram Sabha area.
- Every Gram
Panchayat with seven or more panches shall have two panches who are
members of SC, if their population is ten percent of the Sabha areas.
Another
important legislation came in 1961 in this regard. In the Punjab Panchayat Samitis
and Zila Parishads Act, 1961, there is a
provision for co-option of two women members if no woman is elected. There is
also a provision regarding the co-option of four persons of Scheduled Caste /Scheduled
Tribes if no such person is elected.
But after the 73rd Constitutional
Amendment Act, 1992 was passed; states also passed their respective PR Acts. Punjab
also passed the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 according to the provisions of
the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act 1992. In this Act of 1994,
there is a provision for the reservation of seats for women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
Tribes as given below:
- Not less than
one third of the total number of offices reserved for women shall be
reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes.
- Not less than
one third (including the number of offices reserved for women belonging to
the Scheduled Castes of the total number of offices (to be filled by
direct election) in every Gram Panchayat shall be reserved for women.
- Not less than
one third of the total number of offices of Sarpanches in the district
shall be reserved for women belonging to Scheduled Castes.
Owing
to the reservations given to SC women in PRIs, the SC women have entered into
PR as leaders in large numbers after 1994 in Punjab. It is revolutionary for
Punjabi rural society and it has remarkably changed the scene in rural Punjab,
with SC women from the humble lowest level in caste hierarchy ascending to
various top leadership positions in PRIs in a male-dominated society. Though
this development brought some positive effects, yet the substantial increase in
the numerical strength of SC women leaders in PRIs in the present India did not
automatically stopped all discrimination against the SC women in PRIs or
society at large.
In
general, the participation of women in political life is minimal not only at
all India level but also at the state and local level. In India, as in other
places, women's political participation in govt. structures, elections and
community organisations is hampered by socio-historic forces inherited from Nationalist
Movements, current socio-policies, gendered nature of citizenship, education,
income, socio-cultural norms, caste.12
When we consider the role of Scheduled
Caste women in PRIs, it can be said that in Panchayati Raj, Scheduled Caste
women have to face much more discrimination in relation to higher caste women.
Scheduled Caste women suffer from triple discrimination that is of caste, class and gender. Over the
years, the Dalit women themselves have constructed an identity about their
lives and struggles. This identity deals about their multiple roles and
problems faced as an individual, in the family, at work places, in the
religious sphere and in the Dalit and wider society.13 Keeping in
view the prevailing caste system and acute economic and social inequalities in
the rural areas, it is a challenging task for SC women elected representatives
to function effectively. Several studies point out the constraints both institutional
as well as societal that impeded further effective participation of dalits. It is shocking and sad as National
Commission for SC & ST in its report 1998-1999 observed that neither
respect due to the office they hold in PRIs nor the respect due to them as
human beings is given to dalits.14
Even after reservation and tremendous
strides in development, Scheduled Caste women’s role in politics has not made
much headway. Though through reservation policies, a large number of SC women have
not only been elected to various positions but they have also come to occupy
important positions like Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat, Chairperson of Panchayat
Samiti and President of Zila Parishad. An analysis of the working of SC women
representatives in some of the previous research studies revealed that there
are certain factors which discourage women in rural areas to participate effectively
as given below:
v
SC women leaders were not able to participate
effectively in PRIs due to socio-cultural norms, acute illiteracy, domination
by males, lack of awareness etc.15
v
Mostly women who enter through reservation came
with their social and economic disadvantages - mostly non-literate, with little
productive assets, largely dependent on wage labour and into a rural society
that has fixed places for various castes and gender.16
v
The SC women leaders have inferiority complex
and they hesitate in meeting the higher officials at the district level during
the whole period of their tenure.
v
Lower caste women are dummy candidate in the
hands of upper caste men.
v
SC women leaders’ workload has been increasing
enormously both in their houses and offices. Poverty cannot allow them to lose
their daily wages for attending the Panchayat works. Sometimes, they handover their
responsibility to someone else and perform their duty towards the family.
v
Panchayat
leaders have to maintain forms and accounts. This is not possible particularly for
the SC uneducated women to maintain all the forms properly as per rules and
procedures.
v
Sharmila Rege examined that the increasing
visibility of Dalit women in power structure as Sarpanch, as member of Panchayat
and in the new knowledge-making processes has led to an increased backlash
against Dalit women. The backlash is expressed through a range of humiliating
practices and often culminates in rape or the killing of their kinsmen.17
Conclusion
The
predominant image of the Dalit women in
the present times emerges that of women who have been historically unprivileged
but who have entered into the PR system effectively only after the reservation
provided to them in the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992. They still have to
rise above the discrimination and deprivation that they have suffered for ages in
order to function effectively as leaders of PRIs. It is crystal clear that the
political participation of women is not to be viewed in isolation. Structural changes
in the formal power institutions, increasing awareness through education,
training programmes, economic independence and gender equality are important
prerequisites for political participation and empowerment of SC women, because
reservation alone cannot transform the world of SC women in rural local govt.
or in society. The primary challenge facing SC women in PRIs today, therefore,
is to learn to make their participation effective so that they can capitalize
on the advantages of the reservation and improve their lot. Though debate on
the desirability of reservations continues, some research studies, for
instance, one (2005) in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab (a district in Doaba
region with the largest concentration of SCs in Punjab), revealed that more
than 70 per cent of the SC women PRI-leaders as well as the male SC PRI-leaders
perceived a positive change in the attitude of the people of their area in
general towards them after being elected to PRIs and further, their stint with
the PRIs inspired political aspirations in majority of the SC women leaders.18
It speaks volumes about the promising future trends likely to be expected in
grassroots democracy in our country despite a long history of subjugation of SC
women.
References
