Underscoring the challenges in achieving gender parity in politics, Kerala has emerged as the only south Indian State that has failed to elect a woman to the Lok Sabha this time.
While the State had the maximum number of party nominated women candidates (nine) in the fray, none of them, not even sitting MP Ramya Haridas from Alathur, could win the polls.
The ruling Left Democratic Front had fielded three women, of whom former Health Minister K.K. Shailaja who contested from Vadakara was considered the most likely to win due to her popularity. While her loss has been attributed to a variety of factors other than her gender, the plight of women candidates from other parties may have been different.
Deserted
“Ramya Haridas was deserted by her campaigners in favour of some male candidates in other constituencies. She struggled to campaign this time,” a party worker said.
Jeby Mather, State president of the Mahila Congress, who was quite confident of Ms. Haridas’s win due to her connection with the masses, could not ascertain the reason for her failure, but is determined to find out. “She lost by a very low margin. We will assess the situation,” she said. However, she does not think there is a difference in the way workers respond when women are made candidates.
“I can attribute all my victories to the grassroots level workers who toiled day and night, not just during the campaign, but before that as well,” said former Mavelikara MP C.S. Sujatha of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Not winnable seats
The National Democratic Alliance had fielded five women (25% of the total candidates of the front) this time, which it had highlighted as a progressive move. But Navya Haridas, State general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha, feels they have been neglected. “The primary seats are reserved for male candidates. Women are often given seats with lesser prospects,” she said.
The women leaders feel the need for speeding up the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act that ensures 33% seats to women in Parliament as well as the State legislative Assemblies. “Uprooting a candidate from the constituency they are familiar with adversely affects their winning prospects, as they need to start from the scratch in the new constituency. In their own constituency, the women candidates could utilise the ground support they have nurtured over the years,” Navya Haridas said.
The Mahila Congress plans to press the matter before the party in the forthcoming Assembly polls. “Unlike Lok Sabha, there are more options for women in the Assembly. We are already on the look out for suitable women to be nominated as candidates,” Ms. Mather said.
Ms. Sujatha felt the need for women to unleash the campaign to speed up women’s reservation. “The limitations of parties could be overcome by law,” she suggested.
