Engendering Grassroots Democracy: Research, Training, and Networking for Women in Local Self-Governance in India

Sekhon, Joti. “Engendering Grassroots Democracy: Research, Training, and Networking for Women in Local Self-Governance in India.” Feminist Formations18(2): 101-122.

In this article, the author analyzes the role of social movement organizations engaged in participatory action research, training, advocacy and networking with and for women at grassroots level. She argues that feminist action research, training programs, and networking are effective strategies in enabling political and social change and enhancing democracy.

Theoretical framework:

Women’s community based organizing redefined politics in two ways – one, by bringing in private matters into the realm of politics and two, by challenging the dominant liberal definition of democratic politics, based on individual rights. By doing so, they redefine democracy as a broader participatory process where citizens participate directly in decisions impacting their lives. Thus, the key objective of feminist politics has been to convert grassroots organizing to influence institutional processes. Moreover women had to be enabled to act within these institutions.

Data:

In India, NGOs have utilized participatory action research and generated knowledge from the community to design programs directed back to the citizens. In this paper, the author focuses on the work done by an organization named Aalochana, located in Pune, India. This study focuses on Aalochana’s work in participatory action research, development of training programs, and facilitation of networks to enhance community participation.

Participatory Research:

In 1992, the organization coordinated with feminist journalists to study 12 all-women Panchayats. They found that women Panchayat members gave priority to issues affecting women, although, they did not necessarily differentiate community issues from women’s issues. However, they were not successful in questioning issues such as dowry, alcoholism and distribution of household chores. Differential benefits based on caste were also seen among women. However, at the personal level, women felt that they gained recognition at the household and community level. They also experienced an increase in knowledge, mobility and confidence.

Training Programs:

Aalochana created a training kit with slide shows, booklets and posters based on participatory discussions and meetings with women in the community. These materials contained information about the levels of governance, the need to include women’s issues in governance and also introduced case studies of women’s struggles and activism.

Networking:

Aalochana invested in creating a network of community based organizations so as to sustain these activities. 25 individuals, mostly women were recruited from 10 organizations to train them on these issues. The training programs were developed through multi levels of networking. Based on their interaction with this group once in every three months, the trainees would go back to their own organizations to mobilize and organize grassroots women.

Impact:

Although a direct impact is not attributable to Aalochana’s work, the authors find that women experienced greater confidence and had a supportive network to lean on. The authors find that disadvantaged groups need such networks to create an enabling environment for their activities. Aalochana’s networking initiative demonstrates how representative politics can be aligned with participatory democracy.

In conclusion, the author suggests that feminist politics recognizes that quotas by themselves do not achieve gender equality in politics. Creating an egalitarian culture for women’s equal participation requires an enabling environment provided by these networks. Women’s movements were also critical to ensure that women were effective once they were elected. Thus,
“feminist participatory politics has the potential to challenge entrenched traditional power structures, and renegotiate power at the institutional, collective, interpersonal and personal levels.”