Participatory Governance through Women’s Representation in Gujarat: Assessing the Role and Relevance of Government Initiatives since 2000

Abstract

The underrepresentation of women in the decision making process always amounts to be sensitive and patriarchal issues in a society as it totally violates the notion of equality. After 74 years of independence in India, the issue of poor representation of women in political system remained same or inadequate as compared to their population ratio, although, efforts in the form of reservation, awareness and laws are continued. The paper has chosen Gujarat as a case study in order to explore the rationales behind decreasing trend towards women representation in Gujarat state assembly election and Lok Sabha election held in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Though, representation of women through 50 percent reservation has been a successful in local bodies including Gujarat. This paper also made an analysis of legal and institutional steps carried by Gujarat government since 2000 towards empowering women for ensuring their inclusiveness in the decision making process.