Women and Decentralization
The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendements on local governance had created for the first time an arena for women to enter into decision making process. In 1995 election, the Kerala state followed the new direction of the same amendment and one-third of the seats were reserved for women in the local self governments to enhance their representation in decision making process.
The People’s Planning Campaign that was followed by imparts awareness generation programmes for the grama panchayath memebers in favor of increased political participation of women. The campaign has succeeded in providing a concrete methodology for participatory planning for local level development. As part of this campaign, a conscious effort was taken for ensuring women’s participation in the development projects incorporated in the plans of the LSGIs. The plan campaign did attempt to bring and include discussion on women’s issues in various development agenda such that a separate task force was created to formulate women’s projects. There by it was made mandatory to set apart 10% of the grant in aid for the Women’s Component Plan (WCP). Participation of women in decision making level is a major factor in women component plan, there by gramasabhas, development seminars, working group etc. were the spaces left for women to ensure their participation.
Reports showed that LSGIs spent 71% of the funds allocated for WCP during the year 2006-07. Of the total projects (4664) implemented during the same period, service sector topped with 58 percent followed by productive (40%) and miscellaneous sectors (1.3%)
Sector-wise Plan Grant-Expenditure in
Women
Component Programmes of
the LSGIS during 2006-07
|
| Sector
Type |
Formulation |
Expenditure |
| No.
of projects |
Plan
fund (lakh) |
No.
of projects |
Plan
fund (lakh) |
| Productive |
2607 |
4005.45 |
1851 |
2500.04 |
| Service |
3458 |
6679.79 |
2727 |
5039.38 |
| Infrastructure |
51 |
61.30 |
24 |
27.51 |
| Others |
63 |
330.93 |
62 |
329.63 |
| Total |
6179 |
11077.47 |
4664 |
7896.56 |
| Source:
Information Kerala Mission, 2007 |
However, remarkable achievements had been attained to women in Kerala with regard to decentralization and the subsequent focus on women’s issues. On the one hand, they became more visible in the community spheres and an appreciable amount of funds have reached their hands. Whereas, on the other hand, they had been able to come forward and showed capabiltiy to open up their needs and arguments. Indeed, they showed tremendous ability to interact with power structures and the initial backout from the decision making process had been wiped out to a great extent.
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