In Conversation With Dr Ranjana Kumari

Google Dr. Ranjana Kumari’s name and you will be met by a number of articles citing her great work, by numerous interviews she has done and by a number of papers she has authored. She is one of those rare human beings who have devoted their entire life’s work to a single cause, the matter of gender equality in India.

A dedicated social activist, admired academic, the Director of Centre for Social Research , President of Women Power Connect, Coordinator of the South Asia Network Against Trafficking and as of most recently a member of the National Mission for Empowerment of Women by the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Kumari works passionately at a grass-root as well as policy level on the causes of participation of women in democracy and governance, the termination of dowry practices and dowry-related violence, and the abolition of female foeticide.

We spoke with Dr. Kumari to try and get some insight for an expert on the participation (or lack thereof) of women in the voting and election process. Warm, firm and focused she told us “I know you want to talk about women voting but I believe there is a much larger issue at hand which must be addressed first, the Women’s Reservation Bill has got to be passed and we are running out of time”. The Women's Reservation Bill is a pending bill which proposes to amend the Constitution of India to reserve 33% of all seats in the Lower house of Parliament , the Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women. The Rajya Sabha passed the bill in 2010 but as of now no vote has been take on it by the Lower House.

“Women do not vote because they have no representation, that’s why” says Dr. Kumari. “It’s a power game, 90% of the seats are filled by men and they will not vote on the bill because it means that they will have to forfeit some amount of power.” “How can we call ourselves a gender equal democracy when there is almost no representation of one gender at the decision making level of government?”

We speak to her about the 49% voting bloc comprised of women and ask her opinion on why candidates have ignored the largest vote bloc all these years, she responds “ Women do not vote as a bloc. Minorities do and that is why candidates focus on them. The day women come out to the polling booths as a large mass, as a bloc, only then will their needs be addressed in manifestos of all candidates standing for election.” “ What the general population must understand is that this is all linked. Women don’t vote because candidates do nothing for them, but if the bill is passed then women would be represented by women candidate who understand and will cater to their needs. That in turn will get women more active in the democratic process and get them to vote.”

Dr Kumari answers our last question of ‘what the common woman can do to get the bill passed?’ with “Make a noise. Join the activist groups who are fighting for this, sign the petition, even write to the prime minister demanding it. This is what you can do, we work at a policy level but what we need is the people’s voice. We need the power of the people.”

And so lays the need of the hour, for every woman in India to raise her voice, to leverage her power. #PowerOf49.