Women's Political Participation in India is Very Low

A state which want to apply the democratic system or towards democratization, all of the people even man or woman have the same right to join and involve the political participation in their state , but when we see the percentage of women join the political participation like general election is very low and the gap between man and women is very high.Recent reports in India show if many women politician have difficulty to join in politics, especially want to equate gap of gender and it is indicate need to improve the analysis of the role that woman play in politics in India and it is happens in the general election nowadays. India location in South Asia which means with many people around the world belongs to Asia country and the most important thing India is the second highest number population in the world compete with China make the people want to know how the political system in India with so many population in that state and how the position of woman in politic.

In India itself many criminality against women, so India chosen as a dangerous country lived by women, because the level of violence, mentality force, rape and other criminality action proof if the position of women in India it is not so good and the culture also make the position of women become worse.

Many women politicians find it difficult to participate in an effective manner in politics, this point to a pressingneed to analyze the role that women play in Indian politics. “Domestic responsibilities, lack of financial clout, growing criminal of politics and the threat of character assassination” have made it increasingly difficult for women to be part of the political framework. ( Times of India 2005)

The majority of women in the Indian parliamentare from the elite class. While their public role challenges some stereotypes, their class position often allows them a far greater range of options than are available to poorer women. Caste has been an important feature of Indian society and political life. Most of the women MPs in the Tenth Parliament were members of the higher castes. It is important to guard against making an easy correlation between caste and political representation. The influence of individual national leaders is also an important factor that militates against the “male equivalence”theory.

Imbalance participation of women and men in India in because of the system of government because of the class and gender, if we look at the percentage of women in parliament are women middle class upward with higher education because there is no space for poor women especially not of the upper classes to be able to participate in politics.

The politicians in India itself agrees that the caste an important feature of public life and political India. Most of the women MPs in the Tenth Parliament are members of the higher castes. For example, there are six women from the Brahmana caste. This represents 17.14 per cent of women MPs, the numbers are pretty good, while the Brahmana only 5.52 percent of the total population. However, it is important to keep the creation simple correlation between caste and political representation. For example, from six women who are Brahmins MPs, two of them from the Communist Party of India. In the case of the caste factor is less important than their class privileged backgrounds. Furthermore, they are the product of a political movement, the national struggle and the anti-state of emergency.

The problem class and caste itself in India come from the culture of India from their ancient times. In India women have the low position in the society, of course the role of women only to take care their family become the only housewife, they must take care their husband and their children. Because the author have been in India before, so the author can see directly how the position of women in the society not only in politics but also in the case of marriage. For example in Indonesia and most of the country around the world the dowry it prepared of man but in India it prepared of women and the amount of dowry it based on how rich and how the income of their husband work , so If the husband from the good family and very wealthy the dowry also must become so big so believe or not their parent want to have a boy not a woman and based on the some recent news the author heard in India the percentage of woman change their sex status become men is very high because the demand of their parents also. It dramatic issue happen in India in the recent time. The problem also happens in the case of the level in education for their children, if a boy their parents will work hard to give their boy a good education and will until the highest level of education and until their children get a job. But different with woman because woman have limited level of education so it also unfair condition the case of gap between man and woman. Surely it also become the reason why the percentage of woman in politics is very low because the level of education it also influence they can join politics or not.

Women politicians point out that even within the political parties, women are rarely found in leadership positions. Women have different strategies to cope with these constraints. If the family has accepted a woman’s career in politics, she can negotiate with her family. This is more likely if the family is an elite political family with more than one member participating in politics. If the woman was already active in political life before she married, she can face tremendous pressures from her husband’s family to conform to a traditional role that allows little scope for pursuing an active political career. A woman politician’s options in this case are either to conform to the expectations of the family and retreat from public life, or to leave the family in pursuit of an uncertain future in party politics.

The woman is well educated maybe will think to join political participation. Because the position for woman in social life also not equal with man it is because the culture of India and because it devide between some regime,ethnic and based on their believe woman is only to become the wife ant take care the housewife ,cannot equal with man so directly it influence in the political participation in India itself.

But we know to make a state become more democratic state, we need the cooperation between the society so we can eliminated the gap between woman and man so there is have no problem gender in a state. Women play a very important role in the development of the society. Women empowermentis very crucial in the entire world. Without the assistance and the cooperation of the women there cannot be any sort of fair politics in the world. Governments of many countries have reserved the seats especially for the women to contest the elections and make a presence in the movement of the politics. More and more women are getting active in the politics in order to make their presence more effective in the word of politics.

By : Juniar Laraswanda Umagapi

Researcher

+6285298006655