One of the three variables used in the formulation of the Gender Empowerment Index (GEM) is the relative proportion of women in administrative and managerial positions (Human Development Report, 1995). Women need to be involved in decision-making in order to include their demands in the national agenda. It is generally believed that when they become part of this process, restructuring of institutions in which they can play a significant role will become possible, leading to potential solutions of problems of women’s rights.

The Indian government passed the 73rd constitutional amendment, mandating reservation of one-third of the seats for women in all village, block and district level elected bodies. Reserved quota also applies for the post of chairpersons and deputy chairpersons in these institutions. Since the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) plays a vital role in ensuring people’s participation in the development process, it is felt that political empowerment of women through reservation of seats in PRI will train them to exercise their power in decision-making and minimise, if not remove, social and economic discrimination against them.

How far these goals have been achieved in reality, needs to be examined on the basis of empirical findings. This paper examines the role of women in the Panchayati Raj Institution on the basis of data collected by interviewing female panchayat members of Bolpur Sriniketan block in the district of Birbhum, West Bengal.

Profile of Women Members

Bolpur Sriniketan block consists of nine panchayats. In 1997, when this survey was conducted, there were 65 elected women panchayat members. They were the first group of elected representatives in the reserved quota in the 1993 polls. These members held their posts for five years, from 1993 to 1998. Of the 65 women, 64 were covered by our survey. One member could not be contacted because of her absence from the village.

Caste/Tribe/ Religion: Of the 64 women members, 40 were Hindu, 14 belonged to Scheduled Tribes (ST) and ten were Muslim. Among the Hindu members, 16 were from the General Caste (GC) group and 24 from the Scheduled Caste (SC) group.

Age Composition: The number of women in the age group of 20-40 years was 59. Of these, 26 were in the 20-30 age group, and 33 were 30-40 years old. The other five women were above 40 years of age. This shows that women over 40 years were not very interested in contesting for the panchayat seats.

Land Size: A majority (55) of the women members were either landless or belonged to households with land holdings of marginal size (less than 2.5 acres). Eight women were from households with small farms (more than 2.5 acres but less than five acres) and only one belonged to a household with over five acres of cultivable land.

The performance of the women panchayat members has been studied as per attendance in panchayat meetings, participation in developmental activities, and level of awareness about their political responsibilities.

Panchayat meetings are generally held once a month, from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. During the period of this survey, each member received Rs.20 for attending this meeting. It was found (Table 1) that 14 (21.87 per cent) members attended less than 25 per cent of the meetings, 10 (15.63 per cent) members attended 25-50 per cent of the meetings, 8 (12.50 per cent) members attended 50-75 per cent of the meetings and 32 (50 per cent) members attended over 75 per cent of the meetings. Thus, 24 (37.5 per cent) members attended less than 50 per cent of the meetings and 40 (62.5 per cent) members attended over 50 per cent of the meetings held during one year preceding the date of survey.

i) Shortage of time : Household chores and rearing of children took up so much time that it was not possible for most women to attend meetings regularly. This was true even for some educated and employed women from tribal and Muslim communities.

ii) Loss of a day’s wage : Since a large number of women members worked as agricultural labourers or daily wage labourers, they had to sacrifice a day’s wage (which was much higher than Rs.20) for attending panchayat meetings. Moreover, in most cases, husbands or adult sons had to escort them to panchayat offices, thereby incurring an additional loss of earning on those days. Some tribal women reported that since they were able to find employment for a major part of the year, either in agriculture or in the non-farm sector, attending panchayat meetings meant economic loss for them.

iii) Poor transport facilities : Some villages are not well connected with panchayat offices via bus routes. Women members from these villages had to walk long distances to reach either the nearest bus stop or panchayat office. Of 64 women members, 21 had to walk or cycle more than three kilometers to reach panchayat offices.

Table 3 shows that five (7.81 per cent) women did none of these activities. In the case of 24 (37.5 per cent ) women, some work was done by their husbands, relatives and party members; 14 (21.87 per cent ) women members did some work on their own, and 21 (32.81 per cent ) did a lot and were willing to do more.

Table 3 does not show any clear correlation between the level of work done and the educational status of the women members. However, in group 1 (women who did nothing), members are either just literate or educated only up to the primary level. In group 3 (women who did something on their own), the percentage of just literate women is the maximum and in group 4 (women who did a lot and liked to do more), percentages of
women in different educational categories do not show much difference. Thus the level of education does not seem to have much impact on the level of participation in developmental activities.

The main reasons for non-participation/low level of participation of women members in developmental activities are:

Ø Shortage of time : A majority of women members were so heavily burdened with household chores that they did not find sufficient time.
Ø Inadequate cooperation from villagers : In a few cases, women could not do much developmental work due to lack of cooperation from villagers.
Ø Lack of interest : In many cases, the women were either requested or forced by family or party leaders to contest panchayat seats. They themselves were not interested and had no idea what the position would entail. This is still quite common.
Ø Political violence : Clashes between different political parties scared some members, who stopped doing developmental work in their villages.

Ø Political affiliation: In two cases, members felt that they did not get adequate help from panchayat officials and local leaders because of their affiliation to opposition parties.

Ø Lack of awareness: Many of the women were not completely aware of their rights and duties as panchayat members. They did not  know about or did not have the training or education to perform these activiites. Some SC and ST women reported that they could not to do much developmental work due to poor knowledge of government programmes, lack of training and low level of education. According to them, political awareness was very important for proper functioning of women panchayat members. The relationship between the level of awareness and the level of work done has been discussed subsequently.

Level of awareness : The level of awareness of women members has been graded:

a) Unaware: women members without any knowledge about their duties and development programmes;

b) Aware: women members with knowledge about their political duties and/or development programmes.

The percentage of women who were aware of their political duties and/or development programmes in the area, was highest in the GC group and lowest in the ST group. In this regard, Muslim members occupied second position and SC members, third.

Table 5 shows that of the women who did a lot and liked to do more (group 4), the percentage of fully aware members was as high as 95.24; of those who did nothing (group 1), the percentage of aware members was as low as 20 per cent. This implies that a member can perform better if she is aware of her political responsibilities and of the development programmes in operation in the area. Hence, awareness building through training camps is very important for proper functioning of women panchayat members.

Although 35 of the 64 women did some developmental work in their villages, many disliked the job. Only 43.75 per cent liked what they had to do. Unwillingness to perform developmental activities was most prominent among tribal members. One reason behind this lack of interest in panchayat activities, as reported by a few SC and ST members, was lack of adequate education and training to understand the objectives, scope and method of implementation of development programmes. According to some women, lack of knowledge of English and poor knowledge of Bengali were also factors that hindered their activities. Superstition, lack of time and poor transport were other important factors responsible for the poor performance of women members.

Reservation for women in different political bodies aims at giving them empowerment not only in the political decision making process, but also in the domestic sphere. The present survey, however, reveals that within households the situation has not changed. A majority of women members did not have the freedom to respond to interviewers. Most questions were answered by male members of the households and, in a few cases, by the interviewers.

A vast majority of women members were not willing to contest the panchayat seats. They had to do so under pressure from their husbands, relatives or party members. They did not have any prior knowledge of their political responsibilities. Many confessed that in the beginning their husbands attended the meetings on their behalf—that practice was later discontinued. In order to reap the benefits of reservation, participation of women in panchayats must be spontaneous. If the wives, daughters, sisters and other female relatives of panchayat members and party leaders are inducted into the Panchayati Raj system, the purpose of reservation is lost. There should be a constant search for leadership among women, from tribal or other sectors, who must be identified and trained to fulfil political responsibilities. This requires identification of their problems, customs and traditions, and designing the training programmes accordingly.

An important factor is cooperation from the men of the households involved. Ideally, they should not try to retain political control by making their wives, daughters or sisters panchayat members, but should share household chores so that the women have the time to pursue their political activities. Attempts must be made to inculcate a sense of confidence among these women–which can only be done with the support of the family.

Reservation is not an end, but only a means, to enable women to be
empowered as independent individuals. The present survey shows that, as the first group of elected members in the reserved seats, the performance of these women is not too bad. They are gradually becoming aware of their responsibilities, as well as of development programmes. But a lot remains to be done. It is expected that in future, education, training and cooperation from family will help rural women to emerge as successful political leaders.

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