 Summary of this article
- Women voters now decide Bihar’s elections, but their representation in the Assembly has collapsed to below 10 per cent, the lowest in 15 years.
- From ‘pradhan pati’ culture to token candidacies, women are visible in campaigns but invisible in decision-making as parties hide behind the “winnability” excuse.
- Structural change, not symbolism, is needed. Experts say without dismantling patriarchal systems, women will continue to lead at the grassroots but vanish at the top.
When Divya Gautam, an academic and the CPI candidate from Digha, talks about women’s place in Bihar politics, she begins not with the present day but with a reminder from the 1990s. Rabri Devi, Bihar’s first woman Chief Minister, introduced a two-day sick leave policy for women, essentially menstrual leave, without requiring any justification from women applying for it. “Women didn’t have to give any reason to claim this leave. They could simply ask for the leave,” Gautam says. |
