Kerala Gives Women Their Share

In unreserved local bodies, a woman VP will have to be elected.

Even as the Centre dithers over the Women’s Reservation Bill, God’s Own Country has decided to show the way by reserving 50 per cent of seats in local bodies for women. The local body elections are scheduled for October. The State Election Commission (SEC), which oversees the polls, has already notified that 489 of 999 village panchayats will have to be headed by women.

This has been made possible after the Kerala Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Bill 2009 and Kerala Municipality (Amendment) Bill 2009 were passed unanimously by the Assembly last year. The liaison committee of the Left Democratic Front had requested the government to pass the Bill, for which a special Assembly session was held.

There are currently 20,554 elected representatives in Kerala, and thanks to reservation 33 per cent of them are women. Of course, they can also contest the general seats. The state has around 7,000 elected women representatives. Their numbers will go up once polls are held for the 999 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 53 municipalities and five city corporations. 

Within this 50 per cent, SEC has reserved sub-quotas for SCs and STs. While SC women will head 121 bodies, ST women will head seven panchayats. To balance the quota in unreserved local bodies, the SEC has decreed that women will have to be elected as vice-presidents. 

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Anil Budur Lulla