Behind women's reservation in local body polls, tales of patriarchy, proxy candidates

In a pale blue shirt, sitting on a chair in the centre of a dimly lit room in his home, hands on his knee, the women of his household hovering behind him, 60-year-old Namandilal Meena flashes the smile of an important man.

- Senjuti Sengupta and Urvashi Dev Rawal

It matters little that in 2020, it was his wife Mohan Bai that was elected the sarpanch of Gambhira village by the Rajasthan state election commission in the Malarna Doongar panchayat samiti. Meena puffs his chest out, and declares with authority, "I am the sarpanch of Gambhira."

On September 21, both houses of Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, or the women's reservation bill, reserving 33% of seats for women in both parliamentary and legislative assemblies. In some ways, the legislation is the second step of legislative intervention that began in 1992, with the 73rd constitutional amendment which mandated that all state governments must reserve one-third of seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions (PRI).

The principle at play was similar. If women are given the keys to power, it will increase their representation in government bodies, give space to their often-ignored voices, make women's issues central to governance, and in turn, trickle down to upliftment on the ground.

Yet, 30 years after the 73rd amendment, while there have been benefits, there is also evidence on the ground that there is a long road to emancipation. Data from the 2011 Census pegs Malarna Doongar as the tehsil in India that has the largest literacy gap between men and women. The average literacy is 60.79%. But 78.79% of the males are literate, with only 41.03% for women, a difference of 37.75 percentage points. In fact, an analysis of the top 5 tehsils with such a difference in India shows that all five are in Rajasthan, with three in Sawai Madhopur district alone. To be sure, there are districts with considerably lower literacy percentages for women, but those typically some are tribal districts in Chhattisgarh - have correspondingly low percentages for male literacy as well.