Aam Aadmi Party’s work in schools and mohalla clinics, free bus rides for women and subsidies for electricity and water was a major draw. But if Kejriwal really wants to be a game-changer, he might want to end an old bias against including women in the cabinet. Following his party’s triumph in the Delhi elections, […]
In the concluding part of my three-part series for IndiaSpend, I analyse the results. How little has changed. A beauty queen, an award-winning writer and four giant-killers; one who contested because she received a “signal from God” and another who once famously showed her middle finger to a hectoring news anchor, it is safe to
This is the second in a three-part series on gender and the 2019 general elections I wrote for IndiaSpend She may be the head of her village, but making rotis for her extended family of 22 is still her responsibility. Hunched over the small chulha (earthen stove) in the family house at Hussainpur village in Haryana’s Nuh
Muslim women: nearly 7% of the population, less than 1% in the Lok Sabha Read More »
Women voters are turning up in record numbers, outnumbering male voters in 16 states. Yet political parties, with just two exceptions, remain loathe to field them in the elections as contestants. My deep dive for IndiaSpend examines the data: To understand how some political parties seem to have woken up to the need for greater
As women voters surge, number of women candidates tells the same, sad story Read More »
This is the first in a three-part series I wrote for IndiaSpend, looking at the 2019 Indian general election from a gender angle. To understand how some political parties seem to have woken up to the need for greater women’s political representation ahead of the general elections scheduled for April and May 2019, you have
Record Women Voters’ Turnout But Few Women Contestants Read More »
An announcement by two political parties, the TMC and BJD to earmark a significant number of seats for the 2019 general election to women has not been an example for other political parties. Despite talk of ‘women’s empowerment’ both the BJP and the Congress continue to be miserly when it comes to fielding women candidates.
Election 2019: Where on earth are the women candidates? Read More »
In Hindustan Times, I look at the bleak prospects for women in the forthcoming 2019 general election. Although women are exercising their franchise in larger numbers as voters, their presence in Parliament and the assemblies remains dismal. It is early days but already a troika of powerful women — Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and, now, Priyanka
No new deal for women this coming election Read More »
What will it take for political parties to increase women’s representation in electoral politics? After all, there is no shortage of talent and women have occupied 33% of all seats in panchayats and local civic bodies. Exactly 101 years after the 19th Amendment granted American women suffrage, a record 116 women, including the first Muslim,
A woman’s place is in the House Read More »