Editorial: Women to the Fore

The 50/50 power-sharing arrangement between the sexes continues in the allotment of Zilla Adhakshyas and Upadhakshyas. Just as the 50% seat reservation for women in Sikkim panchayats marked a first for rural empowerment in Sikkim, so does their equal representation at the top panchayat level. A 50% representation is a major leap over the format of the tenure of the last panchayat which had 33% reservation for women [the enhancement to 40% was announced midterm and by the time the elections were held, this had been scaled up to 50%]. This is a positive development and apt recognition of the involvement with which women in Sikkim have taken to participatory democracy as reflected in their turnout for elections. Unfortunately, the voter turnout details and break-up for the panchayat wards and zilla territorial constituencies which went to poll this time is still not available, but if recent trend is any indicator, the women would have voted well. The record for women’s participation in elections already belongs to Sikkim. This was achieved in Assembly Elections 2009 when women outperformed men in celebrating democracy [again for the first time] with 82.77% of the registered women voters casting their votes against 81.46% of the male voters who did so. The feat remains unparalleled in the country. Generalisations, admittedly, are by nature inaccurate and unscientific tools to draw conclusions, but one cannot help but comment that just as the 2009 elections in Sikkim were remarkably peaceful, despite the acerbic campaigning, so were the Panchayat elections 2012. While the poll management of the concerned authorities helped deliver peaceful polling on both counts, it can also be safely implied that the increased participation of women must have played a role in keeping violence in check. As for the reasons behind the increased participation of women, there are a multitude of factors obviously at play, but one of the most substantial motivators must have been the increased attention being paid to women in Sikkim which convinced them that they had a stake in governance and electing representatives. Factors such as improving literacy, increased representation [in panchayat and urban bodies] and slew of other women-centric interventions contribute to this increased voter turn-out, and even as one frowns at sops and quotas, these must be working towards empowerment because that is what the data is posting. This is perhaps a trend whose time has come, and one which would automatically require political planners to position there stands with improved consideration of women interests. Because women’s participation in voting is on the rise, their mandate will require delivery more than rhetoric and this is already noticeable in the manner in which genuine initiatives towards women’s empowerment have been rewarded in Sikkim and how comprehensively tokenism and regressive mindsets vis-a-vis gender-equality trounced. There are still many politicians, who, even if they have shed overt male chauvinism, remain insensitive towards women’s issues and some have even displayed boorish poor taste in the recent past. For anyone with any serious political ambitions, gender sensitivity will be a good investment to make. The sooner that wannabe leaders recognise the due rights and aspirations of women, the better it will be for their political futures because women voters are becoming the decisive factor in elections and their increasing participation is now directing representative democracy in Sikkim.