Friday, March 26, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Women set to control local bodies

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Women+set+to+control+local+bodies&artid=fZYhvgxK89g=&SectionID=7GUA38txp3s=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=zkvyRoWGpmWSxZV2TGM5XQ==&SEO=

Women set to control local bodies

Arun

First Published : 26 Mar 2010 03:48:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 26 Mar
2010 09:09:27 AM IST

CHIEF Minister BS Yeddyurappa has announced in his budget speech that
his government would give 50 per cent reservation to women in all
local bodies. However, this will not come into effect in the Gram
Panchayat elections to be held sometime in May this year because the
Act has to be amended suitably to increase the women reservation
quota.


Presently women have 33 per cent reservation in local bodies.

But going by the reality that quota for the fairer sex is more than 40
per cent, women will get more than 50 per cent of seats once the
proposed amendment comes into effect.

Out of 3,708 members from 176 taluk panchayats, 1,519 are women, which
is 41 per cent. Out of 91,402 members in 5,650 GPs, 39,318 are women
(43 per cent).

Taking each category, the women's percentage is SC-46, ST-65, BCM
(A)-44, BCM (B)-18 and unreserved 38. Women have always got a share
more than what they have been allotted by law.

In any local body, the seats are reserved for SC and ST category based
on the ratio of population of these two categories. But each local
body must have at least one seat reserved for each of these two
categories. One third of the total seats in a local body must be
reserved for backward communities.

Of these seats, 80 per cent must be reserved for BCM (A) category and
20 per cent for BCM (B) category.

Remaining seats are unreserved.

There is an inherent provision for women's reservation to go up above
the normal allocation of 33 per cent. One third of the seats in each
of these categories shall be reserved for women. If there is only one
seat in SC/ST category both seats go to women. Backward communities
(both A and B groups) shall be taken together to decide the women
quota. If one third of the total allocation in a category makes a
fraction, then the nearest next digit should be taken as the quota for
women.

I will explain. In Kolar TP, total number of seats is 23. So, 33 per
cent comes to 8, but it has 10 women members. Depending on the
population, SC has 7 seats and ST 1 seat. Out of 7 for the SC, 3 seats
and the only ST seat are given to women category. One third of the
total seats is 8. Out of this BCM (A) gets 6 and BCM (B) gets 2 seats
as per 80:20 ratio. Of these, women will have 2 and 1 seat
respectively.

The unreserved seats are 7 and 3, and come under woman quota.

So the total comes to 10.

Once women get 50 per cent quota, the tally will go anywhere between
60 to 70 per cent. In local bodies, cooperative societies and SHGs,
women have proved to be better administrators than men. But how do
most men react to this? Here is a harrowing experience of a woman GP
member.

Hanagere is a village in Shimoga district. In the second term of the
body that was elected in 2001, the president's post was reserved for
SC (Woman). The only woman in the GP was naturally elected.

Male chauvinists were so wary of being ruled by a woman, that they
brought her down from the post after moving no-confidence motion and
made the vice-president belonging to BCM as the ad hoc president.

But for the ruling of the HC, this ad hoc system would have become
permanent. The SC woman was reinstated and completed her term.

arunbenaka@gmail.com


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