As the Khasi Hills Autonomous Council (KHADC) and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) looks at the upcoming general elections to vote for its council members, it is a foregone conclusion that once again the new Houses will have nothing more than the token number of women members. The reason one looks at the low prospects of fair gender representation is that the political parties do not seem to be in any mood to push up women candidates.
These parties, whether it is the grand old party, the Indian National Congress (INC) or the latest upstart, the Voice of People’s Party (VPP) or the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) or the floundering Hynñiewtrep Awakening Movement (KHNAM) nor the indecisive United Democratic Party (UDP), to name some of the political parties have voiced any concerns about the urgent need to have more women representatives in the autonomous councils, even as they give lip service to achieving the grand Social Development Goals (SDG) they keep talking about.
In comparison it is worth noting that the Panchayats and the Urban bodies have full-fledged women’s representation. The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992) to the Constitution of India had made reservation of 1/3 seats in the Panchayats and Municipalities for women. Without women’s equal participation and leadership in political and public life, there is no way these goals can be achieved. Women from the tribes need to campaign for the same kind of representation to be enforced in the district councils. Only then will we see positive changes in the workings of the autonomous councils which sadly, continue to be patriarchal bastions.
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