Barriers to Political Participation of Women: A Case Study of Punjab,India

Abstract

Political engagement of women is an issue of global concern. Women are underrepresented in national and state legislature around the world. Despite the constitutional provisions, women in India are still marginalized in the political arena. The involvement of women in the decision-making process is negligible compare to men. This study is focused on the Punjab state of India. Punjab is an economically developed state, in spite of that women are less involved in political activities due to the patriarchal setup of society. This research attempts to examine the political participation of women and the major barriers faced by women with special reference to Punjab. The data used in this research has been collected from newspapers, e-journal articles, authentic internet sources, websites, government reports, census of India and such others. The findings reveal that there is a significant increase in women voter turnout for the last few years in this state but the participation of women in other political activities is very low. Elected women candidates act as proxies of male members of their families. It has indicated the major barriers to women’s political participation in this state such as psychological, socio-cultural and political to name a few. This paper concludes with suggestions for the enhancement in effective participation of women in the political arena in this region of India.