POLITICAL RESERVATIONS FOR WOMEN WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 73rd AMENDMENT CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
ABSTRACT
Presented by
B.KUMAR, Student
Department of Economics, Andhra University
Guided by
Dr. B.NAGAMANI
Lecturer in political science
Dr.V.S.Krishna Govt. Degree & PG College (A)
Maddilapalem, Visakhapatnam.
Through the ages of women are suppressed and they are being treated as second-rate citizens. The Hindu Purana’s and Manu dharma Sastras honored Hindu women as goddess of lakshmi. But they were never accept has rulers. They are not allowed to participate in the discussions held at king courts. Very few women have accessed the thrown during middle ages. Women have no proper education. But this scenario has been changed to some extent after the emergence of British rule in India.
After the enforcement of the constitution of India, all the citizen’s has garneted fundamental rights with this the concept of political empowerment came in the front. The political empowerment includes right to vote, right to be elected as a Member of Parliament, legislatures and local bodies. The women are not allowed to enter into elected bodies which are dominated by male members. The 73rd amendment has changed entire political gamete and provided reservations to women at the initial stage 33% reservations have been provided to women. The women of Amadalavalasa mandal have plucked the par tunes and entered the village panchayat’s and mandal praza parisad’s. The women are elected has chair persons of mandal prazaparisad, zillaparisad and surpanches of villages. The women become a strong decision maker and taken fruitful decisions for the development of villages and mandals. Later the reservations have been increased from 33% to 50% by 2013 half of the members of village panchayat’s and mandal praza parisad are from women. Presently the percentage of women members have been increased considerately. Now the political empowerment has been tremendously achieved encouraged the women participate in the proceedings of the local bodies. But only the problem is that they not allowed working as they wish by their male relatives for an instance if the woman is elected as president of MPP of sarpanch of village her duties are being performed by her male relatives either by her father or brother or husband. This kind of change is not expected by 73rd amendment. All these issues would be highlighted in my full text paper.
POLITICAL RESERVATIONS FOR WOMEN WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 73 RD AMENDMENT CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
Full Paper
Amadalavalasa mandal is backward mandal of Srikakulam district. Fortunately eminent political leaders have hailed from this mandal. After the implementation of 73rd amendment political women empowerment has been increased as number of women voter and their participation has been increased tremendously. On the basis of these ideas present study has been conducted. Present paper has been prepared by keeping following objectives in mind.
Objectives:
- To focus on the increase of women voters in Amadalavalasa mandal.
- To lay emphasis on the election of women as Sarpanches
- To focus on the developmental activities initiated by the women ward members and sarpanches in the villages of Amadalavalasa Mandal.
- To focus on the women reservations to achieve political empowerment.
Methodology:
Generally the women were not allowed to come out of the door. They have no political rights. They are forced to vote the candidates selected by their male relatives. They have no representation in village panchayats and mandal Prazaparisad. This scenario has been totally changed with the implementation of 73rd amendment. On the basis of these tentative conclusions the present study has been made.
Significance:
Woman representation has been increased from 1995 local body elections has the state government has provided 33% reservations for women. This reservation policy has increased the women’s participation in local bodies. Provide reservations to women are a segment move initiated by the state government. Which paved the way for enhanced the reservation up to 50%.
Presentation of the 1995 Panchayat Elections Reservation for womenwards in the Amadalavalasa mandal
Gram panchayat wherein 40% of the reservation was allotted
| Name of the Village | Total Wards | Total women wards | BC women | Unreserved women | SC women | ST women |
| Akkulapeta | 08 | 3 | 2 | – | 1 | – |
Report of election results 1995 Panchayat elections AmadalavalasaMDO DLPO Srikakulam
This was the only 1 gram panchayat where the reservation policy was followed.According to 33.3% reservation quota women from backward community were allotted 2 wards and 1 ward was allotted for SC women category. Three wards were allotted for women out of 8 wards of this village. Since the ST population is negligible, we find that no ward was reserved for the ST women in this Panchayat and the same holds good for the unreserved women category. Overall it is seen, that 40% reservation has been allotted in Akkulapeta.
Gram panchayat wherein 30% of the reservation was allotted
| Name of the Village | Total Wards | Reserved wards for women | BC women | Unreserved women | SC women | ST women |
| K.Munagavalas | 10 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| Kalivaram | 10 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| Kangulavalasa | 10 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| Belamam | 10 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| Chimalavalasa | 10 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| Thogaram | 10 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| Thotada | 10 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
Report of election results 1995 Panchayat elections Amadalavalasa MDO, DLPO Srikakulam
In all 7 gram panchayats30%reservationfor women,3% less than prescribed 33.3% reservation. The BC communities have dominated in these villages. SC and ST population is very thin according to the 1991 census.
Gram panchayat wherein 25% of the reservation was allotted
| Name of the Village | Total Wards | Reserved wards for women | BC women | Un-reserved women | SC women | ST women |
| Chintalapeta | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Chittivalasa | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Bobbilipeta | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| G.Kottavalasa | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Kathyacharlulapeta | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Kollivalasa | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Korapam | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Kothavalasa | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Thurakapeta | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Vanjangipeta | 08 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Vudhullavalas | 08 | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – |
| Sylada | 08 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | – |
| Korlakota | 12 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
Report of election results 1995 Panchayat elections Amadalavalasa MDO office, DLPO office Srikakulam
Here it can be seen that as many as 13 villages were allocated only 25% of the reservation for women, 8% less than prescribed 33.3% reservation. Only 1 gram panchayat 1 ward got reservation for SC women. No reservation for ST, Unreserved women
Gram panchayat wherein 20% of the reservation was allotted
| Name of the Village | Total Wards | Reserved wards for women | BC women | Un-reserved women | SC women | ST women |
| Dusi | 10 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Nimmalathorlada | 10 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
Report of election results 1995 Panchayat elections Amadalavalasa MDO office, DLPO office Srikakulam
The data of Dusi and Nimmalathorlada Panchama shows that a meager reservation of 20% was implemented here, 13% less than prescribed 33.3% reservation. Which is far below the mandatory requirement of 33.3%? No reservation for SC, ST, and Unreserved women.
Gram panchayat wherein 12% of the reservation was allotted
| Name of the Village | Total Wards | Reserved wards for women | BC women | Unreserved women | SC women | ST women |
| T. Jonnavalasa | 08 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – |
Report of election results 1995 Panchayat elections Amadalavalasa MDO, DLPO srikakulam
This gram panchayat was the worst of the lot. Here only 1gram panchayat barely fulfilled 12% of the 33.3% of the reservation for women, 23% less than prescribed 33.3% reservation. These 2 villages BC women got a reservation. No reservation for SC, ST& Unreserved women.
Overall Picture of the Implementation of the 33.3% Reservations in 1995
Taken, as a whole the graph shows that only Akkulapeta village provided 40% reservation for women. 7 villages provided 30% reservation just below the required 33.3% reservation. 12 villages provided 25% reservation for women which, 2 villages provided only20% and 1 village provided only 12% reservation. This shows that the true spirit behind the 33.3% reservation was not followed. The 73rd Amendment Act clearly says that “not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct elections in ever panchayat shall be reserved for women and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a panchayat.” To understand why this inconsistency occurred the researcher went back to the field to ask the staff at the District Panchayat Office (DPO) Division Level Panchayat Office (DLPO), Extension Office Panchayat and Rural Development (EOP&RD), and Extension Training Centre (ETC), they all had one thing in common to say, that the 33.3% reservation was implemented by taking the mandal as a unit.
Distribution of Wards on Caste Basis
1995 Panchayat elections failed to provide 33.3% reservation for the women candidates. The reservations were provided only for Backward Community women 53 wards. Only 2 wards SC women got reservation. STs and unreserved women have no representation at all in the panchayats of Amadalavalasa in 1995.This discrepancy in the implementation may be attributed to the fact that since the 1995 elections were the first elections to be conducted after the introduction of 73rd constitution amendment Act which allowed for due to the fact irregularities in the implementation.
REFERENCE SHEET:
- Reservation Policy adopted by District Administration, Srikakulam District.
- Office Records of MPDO DLPO SRIKAKULAM
- Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of Rajasthan, “Women’s Development Project”, May 1984.
- Results copy of 1995 Panchayat elections MDO office, AmadalavalasaMandal.
- Mohanty, Bidyut. (1995): “Panchayat Raj, 73rd Constitutional Amendment and Women”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vo. 30, No. 52, December 30.
