NARA'S NOTEPAD
VOLUME 15
OCTOBER 2019
NUMBER 10
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
WOMEN IN POLITICS
Some say politics is science. Some others say politics
is an art. I think it is both science and art. Political science is a course
offered in Universities. However, very few politicians study this course to
become politicians. Most of the politicians are lawyers because politicians
have to make long speeches and also they have to find fault with other politicians.
Nowadays anyone, man or woman can become politician if he or she is capable of
serving the people of their constituency. In democracy men and women have equal
right to become politicians.
There was a time when women were not allowed to go for
higher studies. They were virtually kept as the slaves of men. That happened in
every civilization of the world. But things have changed. Twentieth century
onward women got freedom. They were treated like men and they got education
that changed their lives in every walk of life.
Politics is one of the fields men dominated for a very
long time. Since women had talents as men, they also came out and started to
raise the voice for the upliftment of the poor. During my lifetime I have seen
many women politicians like Golda Meir of Israel, Margret Thatcher and Theresa
May of UK, Angela Merkel of Germany, Indira Gandhi of India, Srimavo
Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka who ruled the respective countries. Moreover there
were and are large number of women who are in politics as members of
legislative assembly and members of Parliament. In fact some of the
constituencies are especially reserved for women candidates. This year
there are 78 members in Indian Parliament. This is the maximum number of women
who entered the Indian Parliament. Moreover we had Madam Jayalalithaa in Tamil
Nadu, Mayawathi in Uttar Pradesh, Mamatha Banerjee in West Bengal, Mehbooba
Mufti in J&K and many more in Indian politics. Even in local body elections
constituencies are reserved for women. Women do
contest and win elections and try to serve the people whom they represent. In
democracy, freedom and equality for women and their participation in politics
is favored by one and all.
How do women fair in politics? They take up gender
issues very often over other pressing issues. Men also support them in most of
the cases. In spite of their efforts to help the poor and the women folk,
things happen every day in every corner of the country against women. There are
well defined laws to punish those who discredit women in public as well as in family.
Unfortunately the implementation of law is not proper, so the culprits escape.
Women in politics always require the help of men. Thus
the husbands of most of the women in politics come forward to help their wives.
It is very obvious in local body elections; husbands of the elected women play
a vital role in the activities of their wives. Once women enter politics at the
local or state or national level, they have to be in contact with large number
of people with lots and lots of problems of varied nature. They have to take up
appropriate measures and solve them. As women, sometimes it becomes tedious and
hard even though they are capable of solving most of the problems.
In
general, women in politics play a good role as compared to their counterpart – men. In today’s
politics women or men are considered as equal. So the credits or debits
received by men will come to women also. However, it is a great advancement
over time that women entered in politics to make law and also to fight for
their rights. We do expect that more and more women will come forward to join
politics and become good politicians to rule our country. – NARA
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