Women Empowerment In Panchayati Raj Institutions

Harsh Raj, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University, Sonepat

ABSTRACT

A landmark reform was made by India’s Government in 1993 with the 73rd Constitutional Amendment. The new law formally sanctioned functional authorities for PRIs as a subject matter of the State legislature and encouraged women's participation in grassroots-level politics by providing one-third seat reservation for women. However, in reality takes a longer time to give positive results. Due to many socio-economic and political challenges, women's participation in rural areas showed very slow progress in many states of India.

Due to the government, the vision of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment began taking a real form. In this research paper, our objective is to justify this constitutional reform. We have tried to focus on Gender Equality in Panchayati Raj, Socio-Cultural-Political-Economic significance, Constitutional Provisions for Women Empowerment and Gender Equality in India, Challenges before Women in PRIs, Challenges of Panchayati Raj Institutions, Women Leadership in Panchayati Raj, Positive and Negative Indicators of Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) Participation and possible Recommendations and Suggestions.

In this paper we have observed that when the Panchayati Raj Act passed in 1993, allocated one-third of elective seats in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to women, allowing them to take on more responsibility and have better possibilities. Studies show that more representation of women in politics results in better policy outcomes, lower levels of corruption, and fewer conflicts. India is among the nations with the highest percentage of women serving in local government putting India ahead of its peers in the Global South and the Global North. To achieve gender equality and women's empowerment, recommendations include maintaining reservations for women in PRI elections, conducting awareness campaigns, providing targeted training, fostering inclusive decision-making processes, creating a supportive environment, facilitating networking and mentoring, ensuring financial empowerment, encouraging political parties to nominate more women candidates, promoting women's collectives, and collecting data to monitor progress towards gender equality goal.