The Odisha government is among the first to reserve 50% of seats in Panchayati Raj institutions for women.
The other States could take a cue from Odisha, which has empowered women politically and financially.
How is women's political participation in India?
Adequate representation of women in politics eventually results in an increase in the level of attention given to gender-specific policy and planning.
However, the number of women taking leadership roles in India is rather small compared to the global average.
The representation of women MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha has seen an improvement from 11% in 2014 to 14% in 2019.
However, it is still lower than the world average of 24.3%.
In 2019, 715 women candidates contested the Lok Sabha election, while the number of men who contested stood at 7,334.
What are Odisha's measures in this regard?
Odisha may be seen as one of the underdeveloped states in the country and backward in terms of some human development indicators.
However, Odisha government’s model for women’s empowerment has much to teach for other states.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-led Odisha government was among the first to reserve 50% of seats in Panchayati Raj institutions for women.
Further, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik nominated women for one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha election.
Thus, 7 candidates out of 21 fielded by the party for the 2019 election were women.
The success rate among the women candidates was higher than for men, as 5 out of the 7 won the elections.
Other sops include issuing of smartphones, the award of work contracts, and higher entitlements in the State’s health insurance scheme, arguably superior to the Ayushman Bharat.
The State government has also announced an accident insurance scheme for all members of self-help groups.
How effective are women self-help groups there?
Besides empowering women politically, the Odisha government has been organising women into self-help groups in the last two decades for their economic empowerment.
As of now, Odisha has 6 lakh self-help groups with 7 million women under its flagship ‘Mission Shakti’ programme.
The programme aims at empowering women by helping them start income-generating activities.
The self-help groups are linked to the Odisha Livelihoods Mission and Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society.
Members of the self-help groups are encouraged to sell products at fairs and exhibitions organised by the State round the year.
This gives them an opportunity to travel across different parts of the State and gain greater exposure.
The State government had also announced an interest-free loan of Rs. 3 lakh in January 2019 to each of the self-help groups.
This amount was increased to Rs. 5 lakh just before the general election.
The Women and Child Development Department have been rechristened as the ‘Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti Department’.
Mr Patnaik also nominated Ms Pramila Bisoi, a self-help group leader, as a candidate for a Lok Sabha constituency.
This was a move to bring self-help group members to the forefront of public life.
What is the way forward?
It is widely acknowledged that women’s empowerment helps in the achievement of critical development goals.
Given this, many of Odisha's women-centric initiatives are potential of being implemented in other states too.
In effect, these could play an instrumental role in the political, economic and social empowerment of women in India.
