Chanted as a mantra by nearly all parties, but always preceded by other priorities, the issue has so far failed to translate into political reality.
India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking for a big idea, he might want to look no further than women’s empowerment.
Chanted like a mantra by nearly every political party in speeches, interviews and manifestos, women’s empowerment made for a neat television sound bite, but failed to translate into political reality.
In a country where 130 million, or 53% households, have no toilet or water source in their homes, according to Census 2011, and 160 million, or 66% households, depend on firewood, cow dung or crop residue for fuel, women’s empowerment might be simpler than most political leaders believe.
The back-breaking task of fetching water and fuel falls on women. It is women who face both health and safety risks by having no access to toilets at home.
In October 2013, Modi made his famous “toilets first, temple later” remark at a youth meeting in New Delhi.
“I am known to be a Hindutva leader. My image does not permit me to say so, but my real thought is: pehle shauchalaya, phir devalaya,” he said.
The link between toilets and women’s empowerment becomes clear when you look at the hard facts.
In real terms, the lack of toilets results in 1,600 children below the age of five dying of diarrhoea every day. It means girls dropping out of school because only 44% of all schools across India have toilets, according to a 2013 Child Relief and You report.
It means women who use the outdoors as a toilet late at night or early in the morning face the risk of sexual abuse and assault—70% in Delhi alone, finds a United Nations survey.
Besides toilets, what else do women voters want?
The priorities are better employment opportunities, drinking water and better roads, finds a recent survey by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a New Delhi-based non-governmental organization, and Daksh, a Bangalore-based organization. Empowerment of women does figure on a list of 10 priorities, but it is preceded by such concerns as better public transport, electricity supply and healthcare.
Women are far too diverse in geographical, caste or ideological terms to be seen as a vote bank, but women voters constituted 388 million, or 47.6% of the 814.5 million voters in the just-concluded election.
Significantly, Election Commission data show women voters outnumbered men in seven states and Union territories: Punjab, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Chandigarh and Sikkim.
In 2009, 60.2% men and 58.8% women cast their votes. This year, 67.2% men and 65.3% women cast their votes. While the male votes went up by 7.2 percentage points, women’s votes went up by 6.5 percentage points. The gender gap, at least in terms of voters, is closing.
“Women’s political aspirations are growing,” says Ranjana Kumari of Women Power Connect, a national-level organization of women’s groups. “But the political parties remain an extension of patriarchal culture.”
This culture was clearly in evidence as the campaign chugged along and tokenism on “women’s empowerment” ceded space to blatant, brazen sexism.
Samajwadi Party head Mulayam Singh Yadav’s comment, “Boys make mistakes”, in the context of talking about rape was matched only by his lieutenant Abu Azmi’s remark that women who had sex outside marriage deserved to be hanged.
Elsewhere, yoga teacher Ramdev’s comments on Rahul Gandhi’s honeymoon and picnic in Dalit houses sparked outrage, prompting the Election Commission to issue fresh guidelines against making malicious remarks about the private lives of candidates.
Hate speech against women, unfortunately, does not fall into the list of forbidden diktats.
Figures put out by ADR, an organization formed by professors of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, bring women’s participation into sharp focus.
Across party lines, women candidates made up just 7.8% of all candidates contesting the polls; less than the 17%—men and women—with criminal cases.
With parties so loathe to distribute tickets, 191 of the 631 women who contested the elections stood as independents, bereft of party funding, organization or backing.
Moreover, ADR data does not analyse how many women candidates stood as representatives of powerful political families, backed by fathers or husbands or fathers-in-law.
But historian Patrick French estimates that as many as 69.5% women members of Parliament (MPs) in the 15th Lok Sabha were what he calls hereditary MPs. That figure is not likely to change significantly.
Social, economic and political marginalization, discriminatory legislation and policies, and overwhelming patriarchy are some of the many reasons for women’s low participation in politics.
Indian politics, across gender, bears the stain of violence. But violence against women in politics is “used to reinforce traditional, social and political structures by targeting women leaders who challenge patriarchy and the prevailing social expectations and norms”, finds a study, Violence Against Women in Politics, by UN Women and the Centre for Social Research.
Ironically, two women, AIADMK’s J. Jayalalitha and TMC’s Mamata Banerjee will play a key role in a BJP-dominated Parliament. With 37 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK has emerged as the third largest party in Parliament.
In the east, Mamata’s TMC has decimated the CPI (M)-led left front by winning 34 of the 42 seats in West Bengal.
While neither plays the role of the king-maker, given the NDA’s victory margin, they could still play a crucial role particularly in the Rajya Sabha where the NDA has a presence of just 60 seats.
Modi will ignore these women at his peril.