Obstacles to women’s political representation: A study of the women representatives of Village Panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir

Women were provided thirty-three percent reservation of seats in panchayats by the 73rd Amendment Act in India in 1993, but due to the special constitutional provision of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), it was not implemented in it. The erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir enacted its own Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act in 1989, to make local governance more inclusive, amendments to the original Act were enacted in 2004 and 2014, which provided reserved seats for women in panch and sarpanch seats, respectively. Despite coming in local governance after the implementation of gender quotas, the present study explored the challenges faced by women Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) members of village Panchayats of block Wagoora, district Baramulla of J&K. In-depth interviews were conducted with the research participants to collect their narratives. The findings showed that the women PRI members faced financial constraints due to the meagre amount of monthly honorarium. Illiteracy and low educational attainments make them depend on family members who scrutinise the documents before being stamped by women PRI members. It was also found that the character of women PRI members was assassinated by common people and by some male panches, and finally, their household and familial responsibilities were affected after they entered into local governance. This study contributes to the scholarship on gender and political representation, providing policy inputs to stakeholders to address the obstacles faced by women PRI members and promote more inclusive local governance.