Women’s Representation in Local Governance

The constitution of India is based on the principles of equality and guarantees equality before law and equal protection to all its citizens. It must only guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms, but also prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth. However, these rights have remained de jure and have not been translated into de facto rights. As such, women have been denied social, economic, civil and political rights in many spheres. An important area where women have been inadequately represented is in the political sphere Articles 325 and 326 of the constitution of India guarantee political equality, equal and right to vote respectively. Local self-Governance is an effective method of governing and is known as the Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) under the control of the state government. In the rural areas three tier structures has been adopted.
India has adopted a bold affirmative action in providing for one third reservation for women is all institutions of local self-governance. It also provides for reservation of posts for chairperson and Deputy Chairpersons in the Panchayats and the committees in the Nagar Palikas. The reservation or quota system is put in practice by identifying one third of the total constituency as reserved for women.