Kerala Assembly Election | Breaking the glass ceiling in politics

While Kerala continues to hold its top position in the Human Development Index, there has been no change in the explicit representation of women in politics. Even the 2021 figures remain disappointing as the lists announced by the three major fronts include just 40 women, which is only 9% of the total 420 candidates.

The exclusion becomes even more apparent as there have been no promising changes compared to previous years, an indicator of the enormous challenge involved in achieving candidacy and office-holding. “There is a need to pay attention to the visibility of women in the upper echelons of democratic politics. As we enter the seventh decade of electoral politics, Kerala has only 12 women MPs in the Lok Sabha as one of the states that has always supported women. Has underrepresented. This is a simple question. As a state that claims more numbers of women than men with high human development indicators than other states and has a woman health minister, whom COVID-19 was praised globally for her leadership in management, where its women are in public. Making a Decision? “, Reader in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Dr. Shoba asks Arun and the writer Development and Gender Capital in India: Change, Continuity and Conflict in Kerala.

Although women outnumber men in the state’s electoral pool, no political front has ever pushed for fair representation of women within party structures. The Kerala Legislative Assembly has so far seen a total of eight women ministers, including KR Gauri Amma, M. Kamalam, MT Padma, Sushila Gopalan, PK Mrs, PK Jayalakshmi, KK Shilaja and J. Includes Mercutty Amma – a miner figure against 200 as well as men. Gauri is emblematic of prominent leaders like Amma and Sushila Gopalan, who were unfairly denied the post of Chief Minister, as a woman has not yet been inducted into the cabinet in the state.

Core force

Writer Indu Menon sees patriarchy as a core force that shuns women from positions of political leadership. “In Kerala, men are afraid of women coming to power and disrupting our dominant social structure. Look at our fronts to save some very regressive and deceptive practices in our manifesto. To expect gender equality about them There is no point, ”she says.

Over the years, there has been an unfair strategy of fielding women in seats on political fronts in Kerala, where winning is zero. “Getting less than 10 percent of seats or losing seats is evidence that women are not taken seriously in political representation, especially in its upper levels of governance. To take women seriously, we need to see them publicly There is a need to listen more. With the domain, dignity and equality, and for this, our mindset needs to change, “says Ms. Arun.

Different picture in LSG

This picture is completely different in local self-government, where every time the gender discrimination is becoming less in the crop of competent women. A woman politician, on the condition of anonymity, says, “This happened because of reservation and in many cases, it ends. If we want to go to the next level, we have to find many invisible barriers and discriminatory practices within our parties.” Has to be challenged. ” .

Even as more and more women are entering active politics, there has been no significant increase in the percentage of female candidates or MLAs. The glass ceiling is not easy to break and there are many women who sidestep and fall silent in the process. Our involvement or efficiency will not always translate into proportional representation, and most of the times, we are forced to remain invisible. adds up.