Search ARCHIVES for 'features' and 'in brief' items

WOMEN ON THE POWER TRACK

Women's Features Service (WFS) in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stifung - an organisation committed to social democracy and peace -- will track India's General Elections 2009 through the gender lens. Specially commissioned features will be put out through WFS's weekly log.

India
Verdict 2009: Does It Make A Difference To Women?
By Kalpana Sharma

Women were everywhere in election 2009, as voters, campaigners, candidates and party bosses. Above all, it is the women who led their parties - Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and Jayalalithaa, who dominated the discourse before, during and after the elections. But what does this add up to in terms of an increase in women's participation in electoral politics? Do women still need godfathers to make it in politics or is that trend finally changing? And does the presence of more women in prominent party positions suggest that gender concerns will now be addressed?

* Women may have marginally increased their presence in the Lok Sabha and we need to see this translate into a politics that is more inclusive in terms of gender.

India
Mayawati: A Dalit's Daughter Has Delhi In Her Sights
By Kulsum Mustafa

If Mayawati projects herself as the first Dalit woman aspirant for India's prime ministership, so do her supporters. Recently, much to her delight at an election rally in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh (UP), she was presented with a model of the Indian Parliament. Wherever Mayawati goes within UP, whether it is Faizabad or Kannauj, Varanasi or Lucknow, there is sea of humanity sitting patiently for hours together under the punishing sun just for the opportunity to hear her for a few minutes. She is extremely canny about the way she works the crowd - not only does she dream big for herself, she keeps sowing new dreams for everyone who comes to listen.

* Rural women have a large presence in Mayawati's election rallies. They cry themselves hoarse shouting slogans like, "UP is ours already/Now it's time to capture Delhi"; and "Our sister will be PM/ the world is saying so."

India
Where Are Tribal Women In Indian Politics?
By Manipadma Jena

It is ironic that despite their forming the backbone of people's movements and notwithstanding their substantial geo-demographic presence, women from tribal communities do not get equal opportunities to contest elections and be part of legislation crucial to their communities. In Orissa, larger political parties have never put up more than two to four tribal women candidates even from the 38 reserved seats. Yet, when these candidates have been given a chance to contest and have won - which they often do - they have been re-elected for a second and third term, proving that they too can master the 'winnability factor'.

* "The men try to push a woman around in politics as well."

India
Jaya Turns Up The Election Pitch
By Hema Vijay

There are some who find Jayalalithaa's style of campaigning a bit too distant. But it is not that she cannot be accessible or turn up the electoral pitch. It is just that she becomes eloquent only when she thinks it is politically opportune to be so. In late April, for instance, this politician, who normally speaks to election crowds in measured tones, eschewing the flamboyant oratorical style of her opponents, decided to do a political reversal and passionately demand 'Ealam' (homeland) for Sri Lanka's Tamils. She has deliberately tamped down her traditional anti-LTTE stand because she has sensed that sympathy for Sri Lanka's suffering Tamils could be a game-changer in Tamil Nadu in this election and could help the AIADMK emerge from the political wilderness it currently finds itself in.

* "Well, she is 61 and is more of a mother figure now. In any case, she has more guts than most men."

India
In Cotton Saris and 'Chappals', 'Didi' Readies For The Long Haul
By Soma Mitra

Mamata Banerjee, the impetuous Bengal politician and Trinamool Congress Party leader, has set her sights on winning the state elections of 2011. But she knows that in order to do that she would first need to prove herself in General Elections 2009. So, in her trademark sandals matched with a plain cotton sari, she turns up the rhetoric to woo the mammoth election crowds that invariably turn up to listen to 'Didi' (elder sister) take on the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in her ceaseless bid to storm the red bastion.

* This time she hopes that her alliance with the Congress will help her increase her own tally. But there are pitfalls ahead. If the Lok Sabha election results in a hung Parliament, the Congress would obviously court the Left to form a government at the Centre. Where will that leave Mamata?

India
Star Parivar: Rae Bareli's Bahu and Her Daughter
By Tarannum

Dressed in their cotton saris and radiant smiles, the two women from India's most illustrious political family respond to the mass appeal that their surname generates in their own individual ways. 'Chhoti Indira' (Little Indira), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, campaigns for both mother, Sonia Gandhi, and brother, Rahul Gandhi, reaching out to crowds and hugging elderly women; while "Indiraji ki bahuriya" (Indira's daughter-in-law), Sonia, does a fine social balance of being a leader that delivers while living up to her image of an ideal wife and 'bahu'.

* "Woh Indiraji ki bahu rahi. Woh sagre Rae Bareli ki bahu hai (She is not just Indiraji's daughter-in-law but she is the daughter-in-law of the entire Raebareli)."

India
Sushma Swaraj Becomes Vidisha's 'Daughter'
By Shuriah Niazi

Contesting from what is considered her party's stronghold, Sushma Swaraj assures the electorate of Vidisha that she is really no outsider. As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sahbha MP from Madhya Pradesh campaigns from village-to-village addressing rallies and asking the large turn-out of women for their 'ashirwad' (blessing), Sushma denies harbouring dreams of chief ministership, as apparently feared by some party members, and talks of women's representation as possible only through a binding legal process.

* "You cannot deal with a natural calamity, but for manmade problems, the people have every right to settle scores with the discriminator."

India
A Ticket But No Ride, Ladies!
By Leela Menon

Kerala's Marxist Party and Congress party may appear to have nominally improved the political gender balance by awarding tickets to Sindhu Joy, 32, the first woman president of the Students Federation of India (SFI), and to Shahida Kamal, 40, the All India Secretary of the Mahila Congress, respectively. But when Joy, in Ernakulam, and Shahida, in Kasargode, have been pitted against stalwarts, analysts wonder whether the apparent 'unwinnable' seats were deliberately allotted to these women.

* "I will win this election, as I am confident, focused, hardworking and can win over the people. I know I can do it."

India
Mother India's Daughter Searches For Political Space
By Geeta Seshu

Priya Dutt, Congress-I candidate from the Mumbai North West Parliamentary Constituency and daughter of the late MP-actor Sunil Dutt and star of yesteryear Nargis Dutt, is trying for a second term as a member of Parliament. As sitting MP, Priya talks about the many hats she wears as a young woman politician with both a constituency and a family to look after; and what it means to be a woman in the "murky" world of politics.

* "I see politics as an extension of social work that needs to be done... We need to change the political culture for more women to come into politics."

India
Indian Women Politicians In Waiting
By Yogesh Vajpeyi

Women leaders lobbying in the Capital for their candidature at the Congress headquarters at 24, Akbar Road; and the BJP headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road, give the distinct impression that the demand for more political representation for women will not be long in coming. Lured by the promise of the Women's Reservation Bill, introduced in the Upper House last year, a larger number of women are now seeking tickets for the coming general elections. But as parties begin to release their nomination lists, women are realising that electoral politics in India still remains a zealously guarded male preserve.

* "I have a strong case. I have been vice-president of the All India Mahila Congress for three years. Congress workers of Sonepat have told AICC observer that I will win. But the final choice rests with the party."

home| current features | media centre | theme of the month |  wfs services | archives |conferences | about us