The women in Himachal Pradesh have got a raw deal from all political parties in 2017. Out of the total 349 candidates that are in fray to contest the Assembly polls, only 19 candidates are women.
Of the 19 candidates, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 6 women, followed by Congress (3), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Lokgathbandhan Party have fielded 2 each, one each by Swabhiman Party and Rashtriya Azad Manch and 4 independents.
The figure is much lower than the previous Assembly elections in 2012 when 26 women candidates had contested elections, of which 7 were fielded by BJP and 4 by Congress.
In addition, the three districts of Una, Bilaspur and Kinnaur are yet to see representation by women in the state Assembly and in 2017’s election too, no candidate have been fielded by any political party from these three districts.
Various socio‐cultural, economic and political factors obstruct women from taking part in politics in HP but women activists feel that it was a deliberate attempt on the part of (patriarch) political parties to keep them out.
“Politics is still considered as men’s affairs as the political life is generally considered to be a masculine activity and our patriarch society is generally reluctant to accept women as decision‐makers,” Nirmal Chandel, convener of HP Single Women Forum and ‘Wada Na Todo Abhiyaan’ told The Statesman.
She said the state’s women have to encounter many obstacles because of traditions, prejudices and social conditions of the hill society.
“The political parties cite several reasons for not giving adequate representation women as winnability factor or lack of candidates etc. However, the fact is that they don’t want us to take part in active politics as they feel insecure,” she said.
This can be judged from the fact that women were given 50 percent reservation in Panchayati Raj Institutions elections in the state, but their participation has now increased to 61 per cent. “It seems that they are afraid of women taking over their roles as they had better knowledge grassroots level issues and can work in better way to resolve these,” she said.
“Congress party has always promoted the interests of women and even our party is led by a woman i.e. Sonia Gandhi,” I N Mehta, a state Congress spokesperson told The Statesman, adding it was the Congress party which has granted 33 per cent reservation to women in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
Commenting on the women’s representation in assembly, he said winnability is the criteria for granting tickets for contesting elections and the party has tried to accommodate all sections of society in ensuing assembly polls. “We are providing adequate representation to women in party organisation,” he said.
State BJP spokesperson Mahender Dharmani said the previous BJP government had increased reservation to women in (PRIs) from 33 to 50 per cent and the party has given 33 per cent representation to women in organisational posts.
“We have provided more representation to women in granting tickets for assembly polls as compared to the Congress party,” he said, adding Prime Minister Narendra Modi government had started various schemes for the welfare of women and girls including Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao etc.