Gender identities are constantly being reshaped by state actors, whereby constitutional and legislative frameworks protecting gender equity and women empowerment are heavily influenced by states’ political and religious ideologies. Studies show that leftist socialist governments are more responsive towards women’s rights compared to right-wing populist governments. Right-wing politics looks at women’s issues through the lens of religious and cultural doctrines, which uphold traditional and conservative gender roles. Left-wing politics, on the other hand, looks at women’s issues within the context of socio-economic and cultural paradigms. This article explores the impact of political ideology on gender norms and constructs in India by comparing the party platforms and female political representation within the right-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and left-leaning Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The BJP's election manifesto focuses on family policies and addressing the traditional roles of women by targeting increased women's safety, literacy, employment and job security through schemes such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), Ujjwala Yojana, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and 26 weeks paid maternity leave. However, a number of these plans have hit roadblocks. SBA aims to end open defecation, which has morphed into a women's issue, as a lack of toilets is linked with sexual harassment and a rising number of female students dropping out of school. Similarly, the Ujjwala Yojana aims to provide poor rural women with free gas connections, as many girls have dropped out of school in order to search for fuel. However, according to the ASER Survey Rural Report, 2018, the majority of toilets remain unusable or don't have separate toilets for girls. Additionally, as per Research Institute for Comparative Economics, 85% of the Ujjwala scheme beneficiaries in rural north India still use solid fuels and the mere connections do not result in a shift from traditional methods. Furthermore, funds for the Nirbhaya Fund and National Mission of Empowerment and Protection of Women were slashed, and 56% of the fund for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao was spent on marketing and advertisement. Simultaneously, the demonetization scheme has severely impacted employment opportunities for women in the informal sector. Therefore, although the BJP has targeted women's safety, literacy, employment and job security, these issues remain largely unaddressed.
Conversely, the CPI(M) manifesto includes proposals that range from gender budgeting, equal marital and property rights to curbing commodification of women. With regard to crime against women, the manifesto endorses Verma Committee report that acknowledges crime against women as an abuse of power and considers marital rape to be a criminal offence. Moreover, The All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA)–the women's wing of the CPI(M)–provides women with material and legal support, and has implemented legislative and policy reforms on issues of women's property, maternal, safety, and land rights. AIDWA was also one of the petitioners for the criminalization of marital rape.From rallying behind tribal women for their rights over land and natural resources, fighting for Muslim women’s rights, and challenging brutalities against women in the name of honour crimes by khap panchayats, AIDWA has operated outside the boundaries of class, caste, region, and religion. It also played a leading role in the “Women’s Wall” movement in Kerala where millions of women formed a 620km long human chain for their right to enter the Sabarimala temple and uphold gender equity. Hence, the party platform of the CPI(M) is more inclusive towards women and actively targeted issues of women's safety, property, maternal, and land rights.
That being said, both parties perform equally poorly on measures of female political representation within their parties. While both the BJP and CPI(M)'s party platforms indicate support for the bill guaranteeing the reservation of 33% of all seats in the Lower house of Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women, neither has realized this vision. Even under an absolute majority BJP government, the bill remains stalled in Lok Sabha. Since 1980, the BJP has always been led by a man and elected only two women as cabinet ministers in 2019. Moreover, none of the currently ruling states of BJP is governed by a female chief minister, and the party allocated only six women as Rajya Sabha members out of 80 candidates. CPI (M), an ardent supporter of the bill, had below 10% female representation in the majority of Lok Sabha elections from 1967 to 2014. In fact, CPI (M) had only a marginally higher proportion of female candidates with 14.5% compared to BJP's 12.6% in the 2019 elections.
This reluctance to field women candidates can be explained by the inherent masculine and patriarchal structure of both parties. For instance, BJP argues that the criminalization of marital rape can destabilize the institution of marriage. Furthermore, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, condemned feminism as he believes that it threatens the social order and that women are not meant to be independent. BJP also has the highest number of leaders with cases of crime against women. Even one of the leaders of Mahila Morcha, the women’s wing of the party, was expelled after heavy criticism for instigating rape and sexual violence against Muslim women on social media. On the other hand, AIDWA was one of the petitioners for the bill seeking to criminalize marital rape. However, in spite of such isolated instances, a misogynistic attitude is prevalent at all levels of the party leadership of both parties. CPI (M) also tends to subsume gender within class hierarchies, and there are also several cases of sexual violence against its leaders. For example, there were allegations of sexual assault against P.K Sasi who was charged with sexually abusing a female leader and asking for sexual favours for her appraisal. Additionally, after the 1991 gang rape case in West Bengal, which was then governed by CPI (M), the party leadership tried to normalize the incident by labelling the victims 'prostitutes'.
Hence, through the contrasting policies of right-leaning BJP and the left-leaning CPI (M), it is shown how ideological frameworks impact women's empowerment and equality. The left-leaning CPI (M) takes a more proactive approach in funding and supporting women's issues within evolving social and cultural paradigms which challenge conventional gender norms. On the other hand, the BJP supports the maintenance of the conservative, traditional and domestic roles of women. That being said, while the CPI (M) is more responsive towards women’s rights than the BJP, the political representation and prioritization of women's issues remains weak across the political spectrum. While party manifestos and platforms of parties on the left may appear more inclusive towards women, the profoundly masculine and patriarchal mindset is deeply entrenched in Indian politics and political parties.
Contextualizing Women's Issues on the Ideological Spectrum of Indian Political Parties
November 1, 2019
SOURCE: DECCAN HERALD