Bad guys don’t harm good girls. #myth

Among the many ridiculous theories patriarchy spins as a disguise for its sanction of male entitlement and violence, is the idea that if girls are good, or in Mr. Kamalahaasan’s words ‘dignified’ and ‘confident,’ men will not harm them. The more old-fashioned version of this is the judgment expressed by luminaries in the aftermath of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape that had the victim prayed or had she addressed the assailants as brother, they would have spared her. There are more things wrong with this thinking than I can digress to point out this morning.

What brings on this observation (and blogpost)? These two tweets: one by @angrybirdu with an old video clip featuring Mr. Kamalahaasan’s views and one by the man himself, as recently as last Saturday.

When celebrities say stupid things about sundry topics, it does not matter. But when their utterances trivialise a deep-rooted systemic problem that has horrendous consequences for people’s lives, it matters because people pay attention to their words and in societies with strong fan cultures, they take those words as gospel. When such a celebrity has also entered the public, political domain, claiming to want to make a change, one must ask: What sort of change? Ending corruption alone is a superficial, even cosmetic, change in a society rife with inequality and discrimination. Just quoting Periyar and Ambedkar without understanding that equality must mean gender equality is, in fact, an actor spouting lines written for a role.

With State Assembly elections imminent, and Mr. Kamalahaasan’s party making a serious bid to contest, we must consider his impact on the election discourse and on the election results. If politicians do not care about gender equality and are happy to wear their misogyny on their sleeve as a marker of masculinity, remember they are a subset of the electorate which does not care and is happy to vote for them regardless.

When and how do we change this? Can we seek a commitment from political parties–understanding that it will be expedient and insincere–to at least make a token endorsement of the recommendations in the Prajnya Gender Equality Election Checklist?

As for voters: Change begins with us. Let us quickly mount the pressure on political parties as they start to prepare nomination lists and manifestos for upcoming elections. Show that you care, and signing this petition is one way to do that.

PRAJNYA GENDER EQUALITY ELECTION CHECKLIST FOR PARTIES AND VOTERS

PRAJNYA GENDER EQUALITY
ELECTION CHECKLIST

Democracy without gender equality is incomplete and imperfect.

Political parties, election officials and voters must all demonstrate
a commitment to inclusivity and a concern for gender-related issues
from survival to violence to access to participation.

GENDER EQUALITY ELECTION GUIDE
FOR POLITICAL PARTIES

Make Gender Parity a Guiding Principle for Selection

1. Encourage members to nominate women.
2. Short-list an equal number of men and women for each seat before making a decision.
3. Actively seek to nominate a roughly equal number of men and women to contest elections.

DO NOT, we repeat,

1. Do NOT nominate those facing charges relating to sexual and gender-based violence
   unless and until a court absolves them.
2. Do NOT nominate those guilty of sexist and misogynistic speech.

Make Place for Gender Equality in the Party Manifesto

1. Expressly commit to gender equality.
2. Clarify party positions on issues relating to gender equality—violence, access to justice, access to opportunity and services and property rights, for instance.
3. Expressly commit to gender parity in key party and government positions.

VOTE FOR GENDER EQUALITY

Vote for a party that shows

1. Zero-tolerance for violence in speech or action.
2. Commitment to gender parity (or something close to it) in nominations.
3. Evidence of equal party support to male and other candidates.
4. Strong and clear positions in favour of gender equality.
5. Genuine concern about gender-related issues in speeches and interviews.

THIS ELECTION,
MAKE TRUE DEMOCRACY NON-NEGOTIABLE.
VOTE FOR GENDER EQUALITY.

January 2019

http://www.prajnya.in
prajnyatrust@gmail.com

#GenderEqualityElectionWatch: Manifest(o) Misogyny: The INC Manifesto for the Himachal Pradesh 2017 Assembly election

Election Manifesto 2017

In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress is seeking re-election so their manifesto opens by asking: Why the Congress again in 2017? The answers are not very persuasive, the content repetitive and the language weak. But never mind, because this is a gender audit and what we really want to know is what the Congress is promising to women and what its approach is to gender issues. On that note, in the introduction we are told that with the UPA, schemes have been introduced and implemented for the welfare of every section of society including women. They have gone, we are told, beyond the promises of their last manifesto. The introduction reassures us that women will be provided with respect and safety.

The Congress manifesto has a section “For Women” in which it promises:

• Academic support to meritorious girl students.
• Hostels for working women in cities.
• Pension schemes for orphaned girls, girls and women with disabilities and widows.
• Appropriate justice and administrative measures to fast track cases of harassment and misdemeanours against women.
• Access to credit for self-employed women.
• Self-defence training centres in every district to train women.
• Women’s police stations in every district.
• Anganwadi Centres in every village to take care of women and children.
• Expansion of the free ambulance service for pregnant women.
• A ‘Woman Safety Application’ will be operationalised for women’s safety.
• Women’s organisations will be strengthened in every way.
• The grant given for the marriages of the daughters of widowed women will be expanded.

Under the category of health care, it is promised that more women will be trained as nurses.

Overall, there is less text devoted in this manifesto to women (as compared to the BJP) but women for the Congress are students, workers and entrepreneurs. They are professionals—police and nurses. Their health-care needs, at least as mothers, are addressed. Self-defence and safety are addressed here, rather than the patriarchal attitudes that lead to violence, but the tone is less paternalistic.

Going by the Prajnya Gender Equality Election Checklist however:

• Again, the numbers of candidates are low.
• It is not clear how much support they are getting.
• Misogynistic speech is a non-issue.
• There is no promise to end impunity or to bar those who are charge-sheeted for crimes against women.

#GenderEqualityElectionWatch: Manifest(o) Misogyny (1): The BJP manifesto for Himachal Pradesh 2017

What does the BJP manifesto for Himachal Pradesh‘s 2017 Assembly election promise? More importantly, what does it reveal about the BJP’s gender politics?

Called the “Golden Himachal Vision Document 2017,” the document opens with a listing of ten ways in which the Modi government has strengthened the foundations of Himachal Pradesh; sixth and seventh on this list are the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana under which 1,80,829 accounts have been opened and the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign for which Rs. 49 lakhs have been mobilised for this state. The seven health developments listed do not include women’s health measures.

In the list of promises, women follow youth and farmers and precede senior citizens, government workers, army veterans and weaker sections. This tells us that women are considered an important vote-bank, though not as vital as youth or farmers.

The section on women is titled “Empowered woman, equal rights” (Sashakt Nari, Samaan Adhikaar). The BJP states that it is necessary to take steps to ensure that women are equal partners in development, and that respect and safety for women is their highest priority. Development programmes should be gender-sensitive and they would take measures to improve women’s health and livelihoods.

The Empowered Woman Yojana will have a special allocation which will enable the setting up of an ‘Empowered Woman Centre’ (Sashakt Stree Kendra) in every gram panchayat, which will fully empower women and make them independent. The word ‘empowered’ is repeated throughout this document but we do not know what ‘empowerment’ means. Today in India, it is as if repeating ‘women empowerment’ (forget the ‘apostrophe s’) will transform society. In fact, it acts as a smoke-screen that protects patriarchy.

The Empowered Women Centres will generate new job opportunities for women, and support women entrepreneurs, farmers and self-help groups. Women will be offered legal help in the centres and an ‘Empowered Woman Official’ (Sashakt Stree Adhikari) will be appointed for the implementation of the 2005 Domestic Violence Act. (Twelve years later, should this even be a promise?) The Centre will allow women to be a part of decisions made at the Panchayat—a right that the Constitution gives them. The Centre will host (Sashakt Stree Sabha) Empowered Women Assemblies where elected women Panchayat representatives will meet other women and take forward issues, demands and recommendations to the state government level.  Funds will also be allocated towards building the capacity of elected women representatives. The Centres will also be responsible for administering nutritional schemes.

Considering cleanliness to be a fundamental right, the regular cleaning and maintenance of public toilets will be undertaken, the BJP promises. Facilities essential to women’s health and reproductive care will be provided for in public bathrooms—presumably, this refers to sanitary napkins. Allocations will be increased for prenatal and postnatal health care.

The next category of promises relates to women’s safety. The accent here is on protection and the paternalism is underscored by the name of the redressal mechanism to be launched: “Gudiya Yojana” or “Doll Scheme.” Every district will have a 24×7 Women’s Police Station. There will be a 24×7 Gudiya Helpline. Every mobile phone will have a Shakti (Power) button which used, will report the user’s location, name and phone number to the police control room, the nearest mobile police van and station. To increase the percentage of women police recruits to make 33% of the force, is another promise, as are self-defence classes organised in government schools.

To refer to women and girls as ‘gudiya’ may be intended to demonstrate filial affection but dolls are lifeless, lacking in intelligence, unable to think and act and must be acted for and upon. What does this tell us about the thinking of the BJP in this state (or elsewhere)? That women and girls are less than human?

The next subheading is ‘Women-Centred Laws.’ Immediate investigation and strict implementation of laws against rape, dowry, sexual harassment and domestic violence are promised. It is shameful that this should even be a promise; it should be a given.

Women farmers will be given equal rights, and a Women Farmers’ Bill will be introduced to recognise their debts, agricultural inputs and land rights. This last suggestion is the only one that recognises women as agents and contributors to society.

For the rest, they remain mothers and otherwise infantile objects to be protected, provided for and empowered. Government—mostly men, given the nomination statistics—will take care of women and girls, don’t worry. Moreover, many of the promises are tantamount to simply stating that the government will do its job—from safety and health care to recruiting women into the police, these are old policies.

It is laughable to apply the Prajnya Gender Equality Election Checklist here but when one does so just as an academic exercise, the omissions and silences in the manifesto are underscored:

• The number of nominated women is pathetic.
• It is not clear how well-supported those women are.
• There is no censure of misogynistic speech.
• While the BJP promises to protect women, it says nothing about penalising men who have been charged with hurting women.

Tomorrow: The Congress manifesto for HP. 

(Translations mine, with occasional help from Google.)

#GenderEqualityElectionWatch – Himachal Pradesh Elections 2017 – Where are the women candidates?

This 3-part article is written for prajnya.in as part of the Gender Election Watch Project on Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections

Earlier this week, I and Dr. Swarna Rajagopalan from Prajnya began to investigate gender statistics on the forthcoming Himachal elections that are due to take place on the 9 November 2017. Subdivided into 12 districts and 68 Assembly Constituencies (ACs), the state will witness a single phase election. Electoral battles are often a face-off between two key national parties – the Indian National Congress (currently led by the incumbent state Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (led by Prem Kumar Dhumal). With little space for a third alternative, voting remains largely restricted between these two parties; both parties assembled a total vote share of 81 percent in the State Assembly elections in 2012 which the Congress won.

File photo from India News. http://bit.ly/2iNxZyM

An unforgiving observation, however, is the disproportionate gender imbalance in the electoral mechanics. So far, our research has identified merely 15 women candidates from three major parties contesting in the polls – 4 from the Congress, 8 from the BJP and 3 from BSP vis-a-vis a total number of 400-odd male candidates. Although the list expands to 20 when we include independent women candidates, yet the ratio of men to women contestants have remained disproportionate .

No	Name of the Party	Number of Candidates contesting
1	Bahujan Samaj Party	32
2	Bharatiya Janata Party	68
3	Indian National Congress	68
4	CPI/CPI (M)	30
5	All India Trinamool Congress	Data not available
6	Nationalist Congress Party	Data not available
	Total Number	198*
	Total Number of Women candidates	20*

*Based on nomination data from the Chief Electoral Officer, Himachal Pradesh

In the Himachal state elections since the turn of the century, the number of contesting women candidates contesting have remained roughly around 8 percent. In other words, for every 100 people contesting in an election, there are merely 8 women candidates. Elected women candidates average roughly around 6 percent of the total 68 elected representatives in the Himachal State Legislative Assembly. Interestingly, the figure was the lowest in 2012, when only 3 women candidates were elected alongside 65 male representatives.

https://infogram.com/gender-election-watch-himachal-state-assembly-elections-2017-1gqo2qn3kvgw278

This statistic is further intriguing considering how female voting numbers have been traditionally higher over the last three assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh. In 2003, 2007 and in 2012, the percentage of female voters was nearly 75 percent vis-à-vis male voters who were nearly 70-71 percent. Why are parties not fielding more women candidates? The state is yet to see a women Chief Minister.

Where are the women contesting from:

No	Party	Name of Women Candidates	Place they are contesting from
1	INC	Asha Kumari	Dalhousie
2	INC	Viplov Thakur	Dehra
3	INC	Champa Thakur	Mandi-Sadar
4	INC	Anjna Devi	Una
5	BJP	Reeta Devi	Indora (SC)
6	BJP	Sarveen	Shahpur
7	BJP	Indu Bala	Palampur
8	BJP	Kamlesh Kumari	Bhoranj (SC)
9	BJP	Vijay Jyoti Sain	Kasumpti
10	BJP	Shashi Bala	Rohru (SC)
11	BJP	Neelam Nayyar	Chamba
12	BJP	Vinod Kumari Chandel	Doon
13	BSP	Pinki Devi	Nagrota
14	BSP	Saroti Devi	Barsar
15	BSP	Manjana Devi	Jawali
16	Indpndt	Nirmala Chauhan	Karsog
17	Rashtriya Azad Manch	Renuka Dogra	Kullu
18	Indpndt	Roshani Sharma	Mandi
19	Lok Gathbandan Party	Paro Devi	Sarkaghat
20	Indpndt	Kumari Vandna	Sullah

Does the system discourage women from participating? What seem to be the barriers to entry? We find that reservation for women candidates can encourage more women to contest and win in elections. The results of the Panchayat and Zila Parishad elections – where reservations apply – illustrate this clearly, as a 2015 State report highlighted:

“In Himachal Pradesh there are 3243 Gram Panchayats, out of which 1639(50.54 per cent) seats have been occupied by women in the 2011 Panchayat elections. Out of total seats occupied by women, 987 (60.21 per cent) occupied by general women, 421,(25.68 per cent) scheduled caste women, 104 (6.34 per cent) scheduled tribes women and 127 (7.74 per cent) occupied by OBC women. Similarly, out to total 77 Chairman Panchayat Simities seats, 42 seats (54, 55 percent) of the seats in this category have been occupied by women. Among total seats occupied by women in Chairman Panchayat Simities category, 20 (48 per cent) occupied by general women, 13(31 per cent) by scheduled caste women, 4 (9 per cent) by scheduled tribes women and 5 (12 per cent) occupied by OBC women. Out of the total 12 seats chairpersons of Zila Parisad seats, 6 (50 per cent) of the seats have been occupied by women in 2011 elections.”

End of Part 1. Part 2 will track media coverage of these women candidates, and Part 3 is a post election piece.

Stats calculated based on public available data on candidates, and from previous Election Commission Reports.  

#GENDEREQUALITYELECTIONWATCH: Uttarakhand

Again, this is getting written on election day in Uttarakhand. What that means is that it will largely end up being an account of numbers–how many women and how many mentions in a manifesto. The lack of consistent, everyday monitoring means that we do not get to track campaign speeches for misogyny. This election watch project has also missed out on checking out criminal charges of candidates. Notwithstanding these shortcomings, I would say it is worth finishing what we started so here is a gender analysis of the election in Uttarakhand.

How many women? 

Last update:	Feb 15, 2017
Assembly size:	70
Source:	elections.in
	Seats contested	Women nominees
Samajwadi Party	51	NA
Uttarakhand Kranti Dal	70	NA
BJP	70	5
Congress	70	9
BSP	24	1
Rashtriya Lok Dal	3	0

What is left to say about the low percentage of women nominees?

Gender in the manifestos

As hard as it is to find gender sensitivity in party manifestos, it is hard to find the manifestos themselves. What is the point of a manifesto that cannot be easily found in the public domain? It must be to minimises traces of promises made and the opportunity cost of accountability.

Based on a news report, the Congress manifesto promises 33% reservation for women in government jobs. The other promise with gender transformational potential is to set up five aapda mitra (in every village?) or disaster relief workers. If 2-3 of them were women, that would alter the face of disaster mitigation, relief and rehabilitation in Uttarakhand. However, we have no way of knowing more.

The BJP manifesto, also culled from a newsreport, includes a cash gift to girls: “Rs. 5,000 for every girl child born in poor families” and a removal of the age bar for widow pensions at Rs 1000. Very interestingly, it promises that, “The opinion of all women on triple talaq will be taken and placed in front of Supreme Court.”

For the other parties, there did not even seem to be reports on the manifesto release. Did they not bother?

#GenderEqualityElectionWatch: Goa

It’s voting day today in Punjab and Goa. The one-person team doing this election watch exercise has proven inadequate to the task of genuinely monitoring the election season.

Nevertheless, here is a post on the Goa election season.

Last update:	Feb 4, 2017
Assembly size:	40
Source:	http://www.elections.in/goa/
	Seats contested	Women nominees
INC	27	3
BJP	29	1
NCP	5	1
AAP	36	4
Shiv Sena	4	0

Manifestos for Goa were released rather late, going by press reports. Is that because they were considered irrelevant to the outcome? That would also account for how hard it has been to locate them (full-text) online. If manifestos don’t matter, why draft them? Finding the full-text version is important to a gender equality audit because gender provisions and promises are usually platitudes and do not merit mention in press releases and reports.

The BJP’s Goa manifesto could not be located online after a careful search that included the Goa BJP website and Twitter account. The search for the Congress manifesto yielded this tweet, the first explicit reference to safety I have seen. Nothing shows up for the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.

The Aam Aadmi Party had begun announcing its candidates as early as August and they have the only easily-located manifesto of the lot. It looks like the manifesto is the product of a dialogue process (the cover says “Contributed by 350+ Goa Dialogues”).

The AAP Goa manifesto opens with a listing of four social welfare schemes to benefit women–Saksham Asturi, Rs. 2500 a month for skill development; Ladli Laxmi, 2 lakhs for young women; Mamta Scheme, 50,000 for girl children; and Grih Aaadhaar for families. Each of these is described in greater detail in the text.

The AAP manifesto specifically calls out misogynistic speech by Goa politicians and for this, receives full marks from this Gender Equality Election Watch: “Women in Goa are known for their entrepreneurial spirit which the past Governments have absolutely overlooked. It is high time that women here are provided the right environment to flourish financially and socially. Their resolve and vigour is almost unparalleled across the country but instead politicians have not left a stone unturned to verbally and physically insult women [emphasis added].”

Check out their other promises which show breadth in their thinking: Women are workers, need access to health and justice  at all life-stages and social safety nets. They are not imagined just as mothers or as economic actors.

Goa is voting as I write this post. Let’s see what happens.

#GenderEqualityElectionWatch: Election Eve Punjab Report Card

Women candidate tally

Last update:	Feb 2, 2017
Assembly size:	117
Source:	http://www.elections.in/punjab
	Seats contested	Women nominees
S. Akali Dal	94	4
INC	117	11
BJP	23	3
BSP	18	0
AAP	117	9
CPI-ML (Liberation)	8	0
Trinamool Cong	15	2
Punjab Front	15	0
Apna Punjab Party	86	4

Manifestos

We’ve already discussed the Congress manifesto here.

The Shiromani Akali Dal manifesto mentions the enhancement of two existing schemes, the Shagun scheme where the government gifts a poor family a sum of money upon the wedding of a daughter and the Babe Nanake Ladli Beti scheme where families receive a sum upon the birth of a daughter. In addition, under the header ‘Women’ they promise free ‘swing’ machines to all girls/women who pass Class 10, bicycles to graduates and 33% reservation in rural and urban local government institutions including Panchayati Raj and Municipal Bodies. Finally, the highlights list sports training and stadia in every district under the header ‘women’ and promise government jobs to sports medal-winners.

The Aam Aadmi Party has released several manifestos in Punjab, for youth, for farmers and for Dalits, and all three are gender-blind except for a Shagun scheme of their own, mentioned in the farmers’ manifesto. Its final comprehensive manifesto contains a section on ‘women’ which fares better than the other parties’ attempts:

• “33% reservation for women in jobs. Women employees will preferably be posted in their home district.
• Salaries of Anganwadi workers/helpers, Asha workers and Mid day meal helpers salaries will be doubled. Women hostels in every district.
• Special Police wing to crack down on menace of ‘Holiday brides’ and domestic abuse.
• Suraksha button on every mobile phone with emergency connectivity with Punjab Police via Wi-Fi.
• Special Fund for women and children of victims of domestic violence and abuse.
• Money to be adjusted against maintenance granted by courts and will be recovered from husbands or those responsible for paying.
• 100,000 (one lakh) toilets for women in public spaces. 
• Swift and effective justice in Crimes Against Women. Fast track courts to be built and made functional.
• Women employees will be given child care leave and provided crèche facilities at the work place.”

It wasn’t possible to locate a full-text version of the BJP manifesto but the press release everyone carried stated, “On the education front, the manifesto assures making free the studies of girls till Ph.D. level.”

Overall grade

It is impossible to endorse any Punjab political party as being singularly committed to gender equality, but a cursory glance suggests that in terms of nominating women, Congress and AAP lead but AAP’s manifesto indicates that there are more people in AAP thinking about meaningful inclusion than there are in other parties.

#GenderEqualityElectionWatch: Counting women candidates

As candidate lists emerge across the states, we are counting and trying to list women candidates across the major parties in each state. At the moment it looks like 9 is the magic percentage. No matter how many candidates are being fielded, the percentage of women candidates seems to hover at around nine percent. So far from gender parity, that it’s not even worth mentioning the phrase!

Access the Women Candidates List here as we update it.

Where are we getting this data from? Primarily one site that seems to be uploading lists as they emerge. The lists are not gender disaggregated so then we pore over them and arrive at this count, based on what appear to be women’s names. This is obviously not the best way–just the most expedient.

We therefore invite political parties to check our information and feel free to send us updates, corrections and lists of their women candidates. You can email us at psw.prajnya@gmail.com or tag us on Twitter @prajnya.

 

#GenderEqualityElectionWatch: Goa and Punjab Candidate list update

It’s candidate list time.

Goa

The BJP’s first list for Goa includes 29 candidates (40 seats in Goa) and of these 29, only one candidate is a woman–Alina Matanhy Saldanha, the sitting MLA from Cortalim.

AAP has announced 36 candidates. Of these, four are women. These are Ursula D’Souza from Aldona, Sraddha Khalap from Mapusa, Lorreta D’Souza from Vasco-da-gama and Cecille Rodrigues from Taleigao.

The Congress list of 27 candidates includes three women: Jennifer Monserrate from Talaigao, Urmila Naik from Margao and Savitri Kawlekar from Sanguem.

The Shiv Sena has nominated no women.

The NCP has nominated five candidates and one, Nelly Rodrigues (from Cortalim), is a woman.

(Source: http://www.elections.in/goa/assembly-constituencies/candidate-list.html)

Punjab

The BJP‘s first list of candidates for Punjab nominates seventeen, of which two are women, both sitting MLAs: Seema Kumari of Bhoa and Sukhjeet Kaur Sahi from Dasuya.

The Shiromani Akali Dal has nominated 87 candidates of whom four are women: Upinderjit Kaur from Sultanpur Lodhi, Vaninder Kaur Loomba from Sutrana, Harpreet Kaur Mukhmailpur from Ghanaur and Bibi Mohinder Kaur from Sham Chaurasi.

The Congress has across three lists nominated 100 candidates. Nine are women. These are: Aruna Chaudhary from Dina Nagar, Satkar Kaur from Firozpur Rural, Ranjit Kaur Bhatti from Budhlada, Harchand Kaur from Mehal Kalan, Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary from Phillaur, Rajwinder Kaur Bhagikay from Nihal Singhwala, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal from Lehra, Karon Kaur Brar from Muktsar and Razia Sultana from Malerkotla. Incidentally, the first six are constituencies reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates.

AAP has nominated 117 candidates and nine are women. AAP women candidates are Harjiot Kaur from Banga, Sarvjit Kaur Manuke from Jagraon, Rupinder Kaur from Bathinda Rural, Palwinder Kaur from Shutrana, Prof. Baljinder Kaur from Talwandi Sabo, Balbir Kaur Phull from Dasuya, Sarabjit Kaur from Dera Bassi, Anu Randhawa from Ghanaur and Kuldeep Kaur Tohra from Sanour. The first four are reserved SC seats.

There do not appear to be any women among the 18 BSP Punjab candidates.

***

In sum, political parties are performing pathetically on the inclusivity criterion.