Political Empowerment of Women in Mizoram
| Date | 01 July 2014 |
| Published date | 01 July 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120140322 |
| Author | Lalneihzovi |
| Subject Matter | Article |
POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT
OF
WOMEN IN
MIZORAM
LALNEIHZOVI
The
Universal Declaration
of
Human Rights strongly states
that everyone has the right to participate in the government
of
her country.
Moreover,
a target
of
30
per
cent women at all
levels
of
critical
decision-making
bodies
has
been
recommended by the UN-Economic
and
Social Council in
1995. But, globally women constitute only ten
per
cent
of
legislative bodies and less in Parliamentary positions. India
being a democratic country, has taken many steps including
reservation
of
seats
for
women
in
the local self-governments
to politically empower them through the Constitutional
Amendment Acts.
In
this, exemption has been made
for
tribal
states
of
the north-east and certain areas in plain states
of
the
country mainly due to operation
of
traditional institutions
of
local governments. Therefore, this article attempts to study
the development
of
the notion
of
political empowerment
of
women without seat reservations
in
the state
of
Mizoram.
AS HUMAN development moves centre-stage in the global debate, gender
equality and gender equity are emerging as major challenges. Today
everyone talks about women empowerment particularly in politics
on
different platforms. Yet women are nowhere near to being full and equal
participants in public policy choices that affect their lives. This lack
of
adequate political participation in decision-making bodies has far-reaching
consequences. It deprives women
of
important rights and responsibilities
as citizens, their viewpoints and perspectives tend to remain unheard
or
under-represented and in some instances ignored while taking key decisions
on
national budgets and while
set~ng
up priorities for the government.
However, this does not appear to
be
happening and there is a growing
opinion that an affirmative action to increase the number
of
women in
representative bodies is required. In this article, an attempt has been made
to trace the development
of
the notion
of
political empowerment
of
women
in India in general and Mizoram in particular, the impetus provided by the
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