Poverty and marginalisation: challenges to poor women's leadership in urban India

Abstract

This article examines the women's quota at the local governance level in urban India, using several case studies of women municipal councillors, to question the evidently low numbers of poor and marginalised women amongst them. It examines issues of class, caste, and religion that have a direct impact on the access of poor women to quotas reserved for them at the local government level. The objective of this work is to draw attention to the specific ways in which women are constrained at the pre-election stage, resulting in an elite capture of the women's quota in India, indicating the need for further research and study on this issue.

Notes

1. Kaveri Ishwar Haritas worked on this article during the course of her Masters studies, with inputs from Professor Isabelle Milbert of GIIDS.

2. The term Dalits refers to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, listed in Schedules I and II of the Indian Constitution. The term Other Backward Classes (OBCs) refers to castes that are traditionally seen as situated ‘above’ the Dalits, but ‘below’ other castes (Jaffrelot 2000). Various forms of affirmative action aim to end the discrimination and oppression suffered by these castes and tribes. Other Backward Classes also include some backward classes of Muslims. See Sachar (2001) for specificities on these backward classes of Muslims.

3. The 93^rd Amendment to the Constitution in 2005 which provides for such reservation was challenged in the Supreme Court, and thus could not be implemented. However, in early 2008 the Court upheld the quota, and thus now this provision may be implemented.

4. While inheritors constituted 11 per cent of women councillors in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation in 1995, the number of inheritors increased to 20 per cent of women councillors in 2000 (Tawa Lama-Rewal 2001, 19).

5. Women choose the public sector for the security, the steady salary, the pension, and the opportunity to serve the community and the public good. In addition – and something not to be forgotten – the Municipal Corporation enabled women in junior administrative positions to work from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., compatible with school hours. ‘First priority comes the family in India …. That is why many women choose this … when the children are grown up so we are free … we can concentrate on work …. We can take, accept, promotions’ (female administrator, from Barry et al. 2004). This statement reveals the choices women make in refusing or accepting promotions based on their practical responsibilities at home.

6. In 1993, India adopted the policy of strengthening decentralisation through the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India resulting in a series of measures reinstalling local democracy and providing urban local bodies with a new set of functions and powers, shaping urban local governance. Under this decentralised system, the lowest governance level was the polling-booth jurisdiction, signifying the level at which citizens cast their votes, followed by the ward level (represented by the Ward Committees which were formed for cities with a population of more than 300,000 people), which regrouped polling-both jurisdictions under them and further, a group of wards which came under the jurisdiction of a municipality, with cities divided into several municipal jurisdictions. Thus in effect the Municipal Corporation consisted of Councillors who represented different wards that came under the given Municipal Corporation. Thus in effect political representation began at the ward level, while polling booths served only to delineate wards.

7. Barry et al. (2004) goes on to explain that the women's progress into office was facilitated by support from family members, especially male partners, and by women already involved in politics – broadly defined, in line with the position adopted in this article, to include community and other forms of activity – who acted as role models. As they were more likely to be asked to stand when they had no dependents, this largely ruled out those with young children, especially children under the age of five.

8. The National Family Health Survey-2 (NFHS-2) that covered a sample of 92486 in all the states and the union territory of Delhi during 1998-99, referred to in Sachar (2001): 146).

9. SPARC and its work with the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan, India. See http://www.sparcindia.org/ consulted on 9th July 2008.

10. The JNNURM is a national urban planning initiative directed at reforming urban governance bodies through a policy of decentralisation and privatisation. The JNNURM was adopted in 2005, and is aimed at 63 big cities (that together contribute to over 50 per cent of India's GDP), with a central government allotment of $30,000,000,000 (approximate conversion of 125000 crore Rupees to US dollars).

11. Municipalities are the lowest local governance councils within the city that ensure the provision of infrastructure and services to residents. Municipalities are further sub-divided into wards, which are further sub-divided into polling-booth jurisdictions. At this polling-booth level, Area Sabhas are formed by citizens elected directly from within the jurisdiction of the polling booth. These elected Area Sabha representatives belonging to a ward then constitute the ‘Ward Committee’ and chaired by the ‘Ward Councillor’ who will represent the interests of that ward within the larger Municipality. Thus by creating two more levels beneath the Municipal level, the JNNURM has created spaces for direct citizen representation within local Municipalities. While election to the Municipality is a political process, with Municipal councillors representing party interest, the Area Sabha representative is a citizen who is unfettered by party interests and can thus truly represent citizen needs. In rural areas, citizen participation is ensured through the Gram Sabha and has been in place since 1993 when the 73rd and 74th Amendments were made to the Constitution of India, allowing for decentralisation. However, a similar direct citizen participation was not envisaged for urban areas, until the JNNURM proposed the creation of Area Sabhas.

12. For example the Lok Satta, a political party in Andhra Pradesh, has detailed modalities for election stating that for every 1000 voters two Area Sabha representatives would be chosen, one of whom would be a woman. See www.loksatta.org/englishsite/party/2007/area-sabhas.htm (last checked May 2008).

13. See the much publicised victory of Adolf D'Souza, in Mumbai (Ward 63), who is an independent candidate and backed by more than 37 Area Sabha representatives, including Bollywood stars like Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Suresh Oberoi, and Kiron Kher. See www.2paisa.org/?cat=8 (last checked January2008). See also the website of the NGO Janaagraha, where there is also a video: www.janaagraha.org/node/524 (last checked January 2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kaveri Haritas

Kaveri Ishwar Haritas1 is a student at the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva and Researcher, Citadain (Comparative Study in India and the Middle East project)