Women Empowerment Through Panchayats: A Disquisition of Reservation

Abstract

Empowerment of women is a long elaborate account. Through reservation in panchayats or local-self governing bodies is a disquisition of empowerment and gender equality will be discussed in the present paper. It is tried in this paper to trace the history of women’s political participation and reservation in local-self governing bodies in India, where women constitute the majority of the world’s population. But there is still no society in which women enjoy full equality with men. Further the paper will discuss the decision taken by the Union Cabinet to raise reservation for women from one-third to 50 percent in the year 2009 in all the panchayats in the country and also in decision making bodies and to contest in elections. The paper will also discuss panchayat raj institutions and women’s reservation policies in different states in India. Finally the paper will discuss efficacy and disquisition of women’s political participation and decision making process in local self government. In conclusion, their should be a increased reservation policy and rotation period for higher posts, effective participation of women in local bodies and in decision making for their empowerment through panchayats.