Women Beyond the Politics of Presence in Urban Local Governance: Exemplifying Purulia in West Bengal, India

Abstract

The relationship of women with organised politics has not been very strong historically across the globe as the representation data suggests. The so-called sexist, patriarchal setup fails to envisage women having leadership skills to manoeuvre complex governance system. The struggle of women in politics at both macro and micro levels are more pronounced in the Global South, with India an Asian representative being no exception, where traditionally women are more confined within domestic spheres. To empower women at the mainstream grass-root level politics 74th Constitutional Amendment Act was passed on 1992 where one third seats were reserved for the women candidates in urban local governance i.e. municipalities. The main objectives of the paper are to provide an idea about the degree of participation of women in electoral politics India; along with to find out how the women municipal candidates are utilizing the ‘reservation opportunity’ in the ‘backward’ district of Purulia, West Bengal and to analyse the controlling factors responsible for the entry of the women candidates in the world of politics.