An analysis of participation of women in politics: A case study of the State of Jammu and Kashmir

Mohmad Muzaffar Khan; Malik Zahra Khalid; Aaliya Ahmed

Volume : VI, Issue : I, January - 2017

An analysis of participation of women in politics: A case study of the State of Jammu and Kashmir

Mohmad Muzaffar Khan, Malik Zahra Khalid, Aaliya Ahmed

Abstract :

The idea of a democratic nation- state is impossible with out an active participation of women, which form the half of world�s population. The highest law making bodies in parliamentary democracies are the legislatures, delegated by people to form laws for modern nation states. An ideal legislature should comprise of men and women in equal numbers. However, the reality on ground is different. The global average of women in parliaments as of November 2013 stood at 21.3%. As far as India is concerned, the situation is also not pleasing in this regard. Women in India have a poor 11% representation in Lok Sabha and and 10.6% in Rajya Sabha making India 108^th among 188 countries covered in the annual analysis on the statistics of women members of parliament, conducted by inter-parliamentary union (IPU). Although the sixteenth Lok Sabha, elected in 2014, has record 61 women members in Lok Sabha as compared to 59 women MPs of the earlier elected lower house. The number of women in present-day parliament is better than previous Lok Sabha, but the numbers are not substantial and proportionate to women population of India. The makeup of incumbent J&K legislative assembly, as far as representation of women is concerned is also unsatisfactory. The elected members of J&K legislative assembly stand at 87, out of which only two are women. Observing the inadequate representation of women in the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly honorable governor nominated two women representatives to the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir. This paper analyzes the representation of women in the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir over various decades by the survey method. The paper also throws light on the role of women in the history of Kashmir politics by historical research method. This paper also highlights the sense that true development of a modern day nation state is impossible and charred without the active participation of women in politics.