Women’s Political Representation and Empowerment in India: A Million Indiras Now?

Women’s Political Representation and Empowerment in India: A Million Indiras Now? scrutinizes the processes that have been set in motion through the demand for a 33 per cent reservation for women in rural local governments in India. Taking up the proposition that women’s presence in rural political bodies will also lead to their empowerment, the author developed an analytical framework based on recent theoretical literature on quotas in politics and the concept of empowerment, as well as on studies on women in the Panchayati Raj. The empirical data was collected in Orissa through a survey of 105 women and 80 men and a large number of qualitative interviews. Among the major issues discussed in this book is the socio-economic composition of the new Panchayati Raj, the question whether the women are really present and active in the local bodies, whether they have gained any power and how they deal with corruption. A further chapter assesses how far the women have become empowered individually, in terms of having gained confidence, and in how far the quota empowers women as a group. One of the author’s main findings is that though quotas in local politics will not fully empower women in the countryside, they will still open up an important space for them to become politically interested and active which will, in turn, lead to further empowerment in the long run.