Much ado about Pratibha Patil
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Posted by Ammu Joseph July 24th, 2007 |
So India has got its first female president. So what?
Is her election “a victory for women in a country where gender discrimination is deep-rooted and widespread,” as the Associated Press report suggested? Does her elevation to the largely ceremonial post represent “a step forward for hundreds of millions of Indian women and girls who face bitter discrimination in everyday life,” as The Washington Post said? Will her investiture tomorrow signify “a boost for the rights of millions of downtrodden women,” as Reuters put it?
I am not convinced. Neither are many other Indian journalists, judging by the reports and commentary in leading national newspapers such as The Hindu (see also edit). Despite headlines like “A male bastion falls” and “Unprecedented President” in some Indian papers, the focus in mainstream media coverage within the country has been primarily on the somewhat unsavoury politics leading up to Patil’s election.
Even though a poll reported in the Indian news magazine Outlook, “The New Patil,” claimed that 68% of women in the country thought she was “the right choice for President,” it’s not at all clear that the responses to the rather general questions included in the survey reflected informed opinion (about her or the post).
Interestingly, almost all the international media coverage I’ve looked at has highlighted similar, familiar, predictable issues to drive home the point that much needs to be done to improve the status of women in India: dowry, sex selection, discrimination against female children, violence against women, poor access to education and healthcare, and so on. Significantly, there has been virtually no mention of these issues in connection with the presidential election in the Indian media (although these problems are often covered at other times).
International media coverage does mention that India has had several women in positions of power, expectedly singling out for mention former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (mother-in-law of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, who currently wields considerable power and more or less engineered Patil’s election). In a recent cover story, Outlook provided some more details about Indian women in politics, including previous female candidates for the presidency.
But both local and international media failed to highlight an important aspect of women in politics in India: the role and rise of women in grassroots politics over the past decade and a half, thanks to two historic amendments to the Constitution that gave life to Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of decentralised governance. The 73rd and 74th amendments passed by Parliament in December 1992, which became law in April and June 1993, mandated reservation for women of one-third of all seats in the three-tiered institutions of local self-government in rural and urban areas (respectively).
As George Mathew, an expert in this field, wrote in India Together, “Thanks to these amendments, out of 3,200,000 members elected every five years to the panchayats and municipalities, more than 1,000,000 are women. Women head one-third of all the local bodies.”
Some villages even boast all-women panchayats. Although there are, of course, countless instances of women being elected as proxies and even functioning as rubber stamps for male family members, there is an increasing number of stories about women growing into their roles as elected representatives, charting independent paths and serving their communities extremely well.
What’s more, as journalist Rashme Sehgal pointed out in Infochange India, becoming a member of a panchayat can open the way to a political career. She cited the example of a woman elected president of a gram panchayat at 21 who went on to become a member of her state’s Legislative Assembly and is now a member of the national Parliament.
In my view, the women with the potential to make a real difference to the lives of their local communities, including fellow women, are the million or so now placed at the bottom of the pyramid of electoral politics. At least some of them are likely to go on to influence larger constituencies and then, perhaps, to even transform governance – and the role of women in it — at the national level.
Another significant aspect of women and Indian politics that didn’t find mention in international media coverage of Pratibha Patil’s election is the infamous history of what is popularly known as the “Women’s Reservation Bill,” seeking to reserve a third of all seats in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies for women. The fate of that piece of legislation is still hanging in the balance more than a decade after it was drafted, despite the lip service paid to it by almost all political parties and despite the fact that it has been tabled in Parliament by various governments several times in the interim. The fact that it remains a dead letter today is thanks chiefly to male politicians reluctant to give up their dominance.
It is a pity that much of the international media coverage of Patil’s election projected it as a major development for women’s rights in India – within politics and/or society – without taking into account the broader and, in my view, more pertinent issues concerning Indian women in electoral politics, at the grassroots as well as higher up the ladder.
Incidentally, there’s a woman among the three nominees for the post of Vice President: Najma Heptulla. So there is some chance that, come 10 August, both these two constitutional positions will be occupied by women. Cause for more celebration? I don’t know.
July 24th, 2007 22:17
I couldn´t agree more! I am repeatedly shocked at how little “western media” really know about the intricacies and complexity of the Indian society.
By the way, I am one who was NOT convinced that this lady would be the best for the position in India today!
July 24th, 2007 23:07
Ammu, thanks much for the international perspective on this story — clearly, there is much we are missing out on in U.S. news coverage of overseas elections. Of course, it doesn’t surprise me that nuance and depth elude American corporate news coverage of Indian elections, when you consider how poorly American corporate media coverage our own elections… especially our female politicians and candidates.
I’m sure I’m not your only fan eagr to read more such insights about what the U.S. media is missing when covering international politics.
July 24th, 2007 23:21
Interesting about Sonia Gandhi. I was looking for a reference to how much she had to do with this particular election but my cursory reading didn’t find anything about it in the Western press.
July 25th, 2007 08:02
Great post, Ammu. Thanks for giving such a comprehensive perspective on this. Maybe you should send a link to Feministing. Samhita posted about this some time back in an upbeat tone and naturally, there were some dissenters. In the comments, she said she’d welcome more information on this whole thing.
July 25th, 2007 08:28
[…] Ammu Joseph discusses media coverage of the election of India’s first female President here. […]
July 26th, 2007 00:38
What might change the status of women in India is not just having a woman President or PM, but what sort of person she is. Will she challenge male dominance, will she speak out boldly against religious obscurantism that subjugates women, will she lambast rubber stamp women panchayat members and support those who deserve the post, or push for better legislation for women? Nah. Pratibha will do as she’s told, as would any male Prez. Politics is not the place to find women (or any other) role models in India.
July 26th, 2007 02:03
[…] Recently, India elected its first woman president. Newspapers around the world celebrated this as a momentous victory for womankind and took it as a sign of changing times for women in, what has traditionally been, a very patriarchal society. Scratch the surface and a different story emerges. The president holds little more than a ceremonial post. India has already had an extremely powerful woman prime minister–Indira Gandhi –in the past. Pratibha Patil, the new president, has a dubious record of fraud and misguided loyalties and she “talks to spirits”! Needless to say, many in India are skeptical (if not outright disappointed) at having her as president and this includes the feminists. […]
July 26th, 2007 06:03
Ref. Sonia Gandhi, much as she may claim that Patil’s election is a milestone for Indian women’s political empowerment, it is common knowledge that her selection of Patil as presidential candidate was based primarily on the latter’s loyalty to the Congress party in general and the Gandhi family in particular.
Ref. the comment, “this includes the feminists” above, I’m told by a fellow Indian journalist that the old, tired “women are women’s worst enemies” adage is being used by some to comment on the fact that women (”led by feminists”) are not falling over themselves to applaud the woman president. She says she’s tired of explaining why “even” feminists are unimpressed by Pratibha Patil.
July 26th, 2007 06:16
The aspect of Ammu’s piece that I hope isn’t overlooked concerns India’s panchayat system, which I believe women elsewhere (especially in the US!!!) could learn from. We American women spend a lot of lamenting the lack of female representation in government (and the consequences of our absence), but we haven’t amassed our energies yet to propose and stand behind a structural intervention to change this. The panchayat system is that intervention. When in India a couple of years ago, I was fascinated to learn how a law passed only a few years ago has brought literally (as Ammu shows) millions of women into local government throughout India. The experience they gain there allows them to move up (ie., it’s a “feeder” system for women’s political leadership). Women’s media activism (which I was there studying) has aided this process by giving it visibility in the news, and, through filmmaking, helping women in the panchayats better understand how they serve the needs of women. There are many good articles about the Panchayat Raj act and its impact — doing a google search is a good way to find these.
Carolyn Byerly
July 30th, 2007 06:21
I agree with Ammu that the million or so women at the local/ panchayat level are the ones who deserve more media attention and who may ultimately change the male-dominated political landscape at all levels of govt. I also agree with Sherna that we need to pay attention to the politics and attitudes of a woman candidate (and these may be complex) rather than lump all women politicians together… thereby learning from the “mistakes” of the feminist movement perhaps?!