AbstractGender Equality and Empowerment of women are appears to be much publicisedcliched
concepts of the 21st Century. Though media talks about it, the politicians talk about it,
leaders talk about it, policy makers talk about it, the international community talk about it, yet women are no where near to being full and equal participants in public policy choices that affect their lives. The lack of adequate Political participation in decision-making has farreaching consequences. It deprives women of important rights and responsibilities as citizens, their viewpoints and perspectives tend to remain unheard or under-represented and in some instances ignored while taking key decisions on national issues and while setting up priorities for the Govenment. There was a widespread perception that with the improvements in social indicators, education and growing number of women in the various employment sectors, women would automatically gain space in the decision-making bodies. However, this does not appear to be happening and there is a growing opinion that an affirmative action to increase the number of women in representative bodies is required. Women’s struggle is not over when they enter political institutions just because they enter a male domain. The local bodies are the products of male dominated or exclusively male political processes like most of the institutions of governance and hence their institutional masculinity continues to be their invisible characteristic (Buch, 2010). The challenge of mainstreaming gender in rural local governance is to address the continuing patriarchal resistance in various forums reducing the potential of the contribution of women in panchayats to engender governance eradicating discriminations, neglect and apathy affecting even equitable utilization of resources e.g. in centrally sponsored schemes in social sectors. A number of measures has been suggested from time to time to empower women in panchayats, to perform their role in rural governance and in delivery of public services which is an important part of their responsibilities. This requires their effective participation in articulation of their needs and demands overcoming the social and institutional constraints.
Keywords: Empowerment; Gender; Sociological Concerns; Amendment.
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