An Experiment in Feminist Technology in Local Governance: Revisiting the Question of ‘Invited Spaces’ of Participation in Kerala

Abstract

In this article, we foreground the potential for a space for collective deliberation and political subjectivities building among women leaders in local governance. We interrogate the Gramamukhya portal, which was initiated in 2011 and continued until 2015, as a democratic space to politicise the invited spaces of governance. Revisiting the question of women’s engagement in panchayati raj institutions in Kerala, we suggest that the practice of citizenship can become politically effective for women in governance if they use a platform that facilitates critical engagement from within and without the invited spaces of participation. This reflection becomes all the more significant given the contemporary political context of Kerala, where the women’s question is caught between developmentalist intentions of the state and right-wing political mobilisations at the grass-roots level.

Can Reservation Ensure Women’s Participation in Local Governance: A Study Among Tiwas

“…Although political decentralisation through the 73rd constitutional amendment act has offered women opportunities to represent themselves at local governance yet, the reservation of seats for women ‘does not automatically ensure parity of participation in the arenas of public debate and policy formulation’ (Thampi & Kawlra, 2019, p. 206). In fact, the reservation of seats that lead to women’s representation in the formal structure of governance alone could not empower the women to articulate and challenge gendered structures of inequality (Williams et al, 2015).…”

“…They considered the 73rd constitutional amendment a milestone for bringing several social changes through legal measures in the local self-governing institutions. However, although several of these studies show that representation of women in rural local self-governance structures has enhanced the power of women within society and community, some other studies (Mishra, 2018; Nagarajappa & Chidananda, 2019; Naik et al, 2020; Sukumar et al, 2019; Thampi & Kawlra, 2019) have found that policy of reservation does not easily assure women’s effective political participation or political representation. ‘This is because of the “social embeddedness of policy” in local contexts’ (Kalaramadam, 2018, p. 1).…”