Women-led local bodies demonstrate higher transparency, closer monitoring: Harivansh

New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI) Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh on Friday highlighted that studies and field experience indicate that women-led local bodies demonstrate higher levels of transparency, closer monitoring and stronger accountability.

Addressing the Lightning Round session at the 28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) on the theme ‘Women's Contribution to India's Three-Tier System of Governance’, Harivansh said that due to their close engagement with communities, leakages are often reduced and the benefits of government programmes and schemes reach the intended beneficiaries more effectively.

He also shared India's lived experience of women's participation in governance across its three-tier democratic framework comprising Parliament at the Union level, state legislatures and local self-government institutions.

The framework is based on vertical power-sharing among the Centre, states and grassroots institutions and has acquired global significance due to the constitutional and institutional inclusion of women, particularly at the local level, Harivansh noted.

The Rajya Sabha deputy chairman also said that India's experience demonstrates how women's participation strengthens democratic legitimacy and improves governance outcomes.

India's journey of women's political participation is deeply rooted in its civilisational ethos, where deliberative assemblies and collective decision-making have historically witnessed meaningful participation by women, he said.

Referring to India's constitutional evolution, Harivansh said women were enfranchised in several provinces as early as the 1920s, much before Independence.

With the adoption of universal adult franchise in 1950, India took a bold and progressive step by ensuring political equality from the very inception of the Republic, he noted.

Harivansh also said that the commitment to gender equality was deepened through the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in the early 1990s, which mandated one-third reservation for women in rural and urban local bodies.

This provision has since been enhanced to 50 per cent reservation in rural local bodies by over two-thirds of the states, and by nearly half the states in urban local bodies, he said.

Highlighting the scale of women's participation, Harivansh referred to the observations made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and noted that nearly 1.5 million women currently serve as elected representatives in local self-governing bodies, which he described as the largest experiment in women's political representation anywhere in the world.

For many women, particularly those from rural and marginalised sections of society, local bodies serve as the first point of entry into public life, he said.

Harivansh also stressed that studies and field experience indicate that women-led local bodies demonstrate higher levels of transparency, closer monitoring and stronger accountability.

Due to their close engagement with communities, leakages are often reduced, and the benefits of government programmes and schemes reach the intended beneficiaries more effectively, he said.

With the increasing participation of women across all three tiers of governance, the emphasis has gradually shifted from women's development to women-led development, he said.

Also, women's participation in local governance has challenged the traditional gender roles and created a large pool of experienced women leaders, with many going on to serve as ministers, speakers, chief ministers and presiding officers, Harivansh said.

He said the passage of the 106th Constitutional Amendment, the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', marks a significant milestone by providing 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, which he described as a reaffirmation of India's long-term commitment to gender balance in parliamentary representation.

Summarising the key lessons from India's experience, the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman said that local governance provides a sustainable entry point for women leadership; that diversity and scale are not barriers to inclusion; and that women's leadership improves governance outcomes, rather than merely improving representation statistics.

For the Commonwealth, he said, India's experience reinforces the shared conviction that inclusive parliaments are stronger parliaments, and that democracies flourish when women participate as equal partners in governance. PTI SKC ARI