Political Participation of Women in Panchayat Raj Insitution: A Sociological Study in Kalinga Village, Bhiwani

INTRODUCTION

The women of our country constitute around half of the total population. But the involvement of women in politics is very low as compared to men population. Any democratic country like India which cannot progress if half of the population is engaged in kitchen only.Recently, there is origin of the concept of empowerment of women. The word ―empowerment‖ has been given currency by United Nation (UN) agencies during recent in these years. In broad sense Empowerment is a imparting the power to powerless part of any society. Women contribute half of the population of the country. But this half of population is far away from the main stream of the development i.e. less involvement in political arena. Shamelessly said now days the women limited in the houses and children that resulted into half of the population not contributing in nation building. The political status of women is the symbol of freedom and equality adored by women in sharing power in politics and decision making. It also indicates the importance given by the society to the role of women in political system. Political participation of women is one of the major ways to ensure women‟s empowerment, to increase decision-making power and greater ability and to influence matters that affect their lives in the community and the larger society. In the broader sense, participation in politics goes far beyond electoral politics, such as voting and election to public office. Women‟s empowerment begins with their consciousness - perceptions about herself and her rights, her capabilities and her potentials, awareness of her gender and socio-cultural, economic and political forces that affect her (Reema Mukherjee, 2008). The issue of women‘s participation in politics cannot be viewed in isolation from the general position of women in a society but despite their vast strength, women occupy a marginalized position in the political system. According to

the ruled.‖ Political philosophers like J.S. Mill, Rousseau and Bentham have strongly advocated the need for participation of people in different spheres of political life. As Noorjahan Bava puts it, ―direct and indirect participation of citizens in public affairs is the lifeline of a participatory democracy‖. In this gram panchayat members are leading in economic planning, agriculture and resource development, education and health monitoring, household industry monitoring, animal husbandry etc. Constitutional Privileges: The constitution of India not only offers equality to women but also direct the state to take the measures of positive discrimination in favour of women to minimize the socio economic, education and political disadvantages faced by them. i. Equality before law for women (Article 14), ii. There should not be the discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them (Article 15 (i)), iii. One third of the total numbers of seats are reserved for women out of total number of seats to be filled by direct election in three tiers of Panchayati Raj system.(Article 243 D(3)), iv. One third of the total numbers of offices of Chairperson are reserved for women at each level of Panchayat. (Article 243 D (4)).

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:-

Singh(2008), study was conducted on Women of Rural area in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, state that whole development may not be achieved until women and the resources, they represent are fully integrated into the development and women empowerment use as a tool to sustain the development as an ongoing process life decision making. The writer also state that the problems of the patriarchy society or proxy rules by husbands and other males of the society. Singla(2007), based on a comprehensive study, which looks into the whole issue of women‘s participation in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the north Indian state of Haryana which is characterised by an alarming sex ratio in favour of men.

1. To find out socio – economic background of women representative in Panchayati Raj. 2. To assess the relatives‘ influences in political participation of women. 3. To find out the place of women representatives in panchayati raj institutions. was conducted in the village Kalinga, district Bhiwani, Haryana. There were collected data from primary and secondary data from different sources. The primary data was collected by using the interview scheduled in which asked the questions which fulfil the above objectives. The study has been conducted on 21 samples from Grampanchayat. The simple random sampling technique was used to select samples for collecting the data

Table No. : 1 Age wise distribution of Respondents:- The above table shows that the majority of women were the age group of 36-45(45.40%) followed by the age group 25-35 (36%) those who participated in panchayat elections and panchayat affairs. Only 18% were from age group 46-55. It is quite clear from the above data that the aged women have some sort of apathy towards politics whereas young and middle aged women are more interested in politics. Table:-2 Caste-wise distribution of respondents From the above table it is found that majority of the women participated in the electoral process from the Genaral category (54.55%), followed by SC Category (27.3%), OBC (18.20%) which are participate in panchayat elections. In General category, majority of the Rajput Caste in this village. So, the women of OBC and SC category are less interested in politics so far as their social, cultural, educational and economical condition is concerned. Table:-3 Reasons to Decision of Contest Election

which resulted in the political participation of these women. 18.2% women respondents gave the reasons to contest election was fulfil the qualification criteria followed by 9.1% women respondents to contest election due to their family but there percentage was very small in this village. Table:-4 Women Empowerment due to their position in Gram Panchayat

The 73rd Amendment Act of constitution of India is playing the desired role of empowerment of women in rural government. Majority of the respondents 63.4% said that they had some change in the status of women of village after they became Panch / Sarpanch in panchayats, as they are women going to panchayats other women also feel motivated and comfortable, if they had any issue and need help.

SUGGESTIONS:-

There are providing a number of constitutional rights to political empowerment of women in rural local bodies. But these rights is not enough for the political empowerment of women. There are providing the only reservation of women in politics but alongwith that it is the responsibility of the Government and Society to create environment where women can enjoy the political rights and participate in the decision making process. There are some suggestions came which are given below:- 1. To increase the political consciousness of the women representatives about the panchayat raj institutions. 2. The women representatives have given the space by the family and society in which they are better understand their role and better play their role in three tier of Panchayati Raj institutions. 3. There are reservation policy for the women to political empowerment but alongwith need to men and women work together for better development. 4. Government should take the help of NGOs and social workers to strengthen the women representatives. population and there are 50% reservation in Panchayat Raj institution given to the women for their political empowerment. But still this empowerment is on paper not practically. The women still unable to take their rights due to some certain reasons. We cannot blame to the women that they are not play their role. There are lots of interference of the family and relatives to perform their role of women representative. So it's a responsibility of the Government and society to ensure their participation in every decision in local self government. The women representative are well trained and creating favourable environment to participate and improve their performance as well. Then really we call empower them politically as well as our half of the population will start to contribute in nation building.

REFERENCES:- .

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M.Phil. Scholar, Department of Sociology, MDU, Rohtak reenasfi93@gmail.com