Women Politics In Odisha : Trends And Challenges

November - 2014Odisha ReviewWomen Politics in Odisha :Trends and ChallengesDr. Dasarathi BhuiyanThere was a big gap between men and womenin Odisha in electoral field during the pre independence era. This can be inferred from thefact that none of the three ministry of Odishaduring the Pre-Independence Assembly period,i.e., from 1936 to 1947 included any women,although Sarala Devi and Punya Prabha Deviwere elected from the Cuttack town constituency,A. Laxmi Bai was elected from the Brahamapurconstituency. But in the link assembly from 1947to 1952 among the women legislators Smt. A.Laxmi Bai was the Deputy Speaker of the OdishaLegislative Assembly from 29.05.1946 to20.02.1952 and Smt. Basant Manjari Devi wasthe Deputy Minister of Health in the HarekrushnaMahatab Ministry, who assumed the charge ofoffice on 23rd April,1946.After the Independence of India therehad been a spectacular increasing in the politicalparticipation of women in Odisha. Many of themcontested in the elections to the Assembly andLok Sabha. A few of them were also appointedas the ministers both at the centre and in the states.But except Basant Manjari Devi, others were notvery influential. The real powers continued to laywith the male politicians. Although Basant ManjariDevi, (queen mother or Rajmata of Ranpur) wasa prominent women political personality duringthe post-Independence era, she lacked statewideinfluence. Despite the fact that Basant ManjariDevi had been the Deputy Minister she was atbest a “decorative piece” of the cabinet of H.K.Mahatab and Nabakrishna Chaudhury from 1946to 1959. Up to the end of 1960’s the politicalscene of Odisha was dominated by male leaderslike Harekrishna Mahatab, Biju Patnaik, RajendraNarayan Singh Deo, Nabakrishna Choudhary andBiren Mitra.The mid-term election to the OdishaAssembly was held in 1961. Smt. SaraswatiPradhan, a Congress Party candidate was electedfrom Bhatali constituency of Sambalpur district.She was inducted into Biju Patnaik’s Cabinet asa Deputy Minister of Education. [3] Smt SaraswatiPradhan was again inducted as a Deputy Ministerof Education in the Biren Mitra’s government on2nd October, 1963. She also served in the Ministryof Sadasiv Tripathy as the Deputy Minister ofEducation as before. Smt. Saraswati Pradhanserved as a Deputy Minister in the three Ministriesof Biju Patnaik, Biren Mitra and Sadasiv Mishrafrom 1961 to 1967, but she was not promotedto the Minister of state or Cabinet rank. The factis that Smt. Saraswati Pradhan was appointedonly to fill up the women quota in the ministry.Smt. Anang Manjari Devi, a JanaCongress candidate from Sukinda constituency,47

Odisha ReviewSmt. Swaraswati Pradhan of the Congress partyfrom Bhatli constituency and Smt. Ratna PrabhaDevi, a Swatantra candidate from Dhenkanalconstituency were elected in the elections of 1967to the Odisha Assembly. The Swatantra–JanaCongress, Swatantra–Jana Congress Ministry didnot include any women from the elected womenlegislators from their respective parties.In the mid-term elections to the OdishaAssembly of 1971 although 12 women candidatescontested, none of them were elected to theOdisha Legislative Assembly. But Smt. NandiniSatpathy, then a Union Minister of state becamethe Chief Minister of Odisha though she was nota Member of Assembly. [4] Smt. Nandini Satpathywas the first woman Chief Minister of Odisha.Later on she was elected to the Assembly fromCuttack Constituency on 26.11.1972 in a byeelection. [5]In the 1974 mid-term elections NandiniSatpathy formed her second ministry on March6, 1974. Other women candidates such asSairindri Nayak, Subhansu Malini Ray ofCongress and V. Sugyan Kumari Deo of UtkalCongress were elected to the Assembly. Butnone of them were included in the ministry ofSmt. Satpathy. The Binayak Acharya Ministrythat assumed charge of office on 29th December1976 also did not induct any woman minister.Nilamani Routray, took over the administrationof the state on June 26, 1977. Eventhough, outof seven women legislators five were elected fromJanata party, Routray Ministry did not include anywoman minister.In the 1980 elections to the OdishaLegislative Assembly 5 women members wereelected. Sri J.B Patnaik inducted Smt. SaraswatiHembram, as a Deputy Minister of ChildDevelopment and Rural Reconstruction. Smt.Hembram continued as a deputy minister till the48November - 2014end of the J. B. Patnaik’s first tenure of ChiefMinister. In the 1985 Assembly elections 7women members were elected to the OdishaAssembly. Never before such large number ofwomen candidates were elected to the House.Miss Frida Topno was inducted as the Ministerof State for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry inthe second Ministry of J.B. Patniak in 1985.J.B.Patnaik reshuffled his Ministry on 22nd July1986. He inducted Smt. Parama Pujari and SmtSaraswati Hembram as Deputy Ministers. SmtPujari was given the portfolio of ChildDevelopment and Rural Reconstruction while SmtParama Pujari was given the portfolio of Harijan& Tribal Welfare. Shri Hemananda Biswalbecame the leader of the Congress LegislatureParty and he took over as Odisha’s Chief Ministeron 5th December, 1989. He included all thewomen ministers of J.B.Patnaik’s Cabinet.In the March 1990 elections sevenwomen members were elected to the OdishaAssembly. Except Congress legislator, Smt.Nandini Satpathy, all others were elected fromJanata Dal Dal ticket. But Biju Patnaik inductedonly Dr. Kamala Das as a Minister of state forEducation and Youth Services (Primary and AdultEducation) into his Cabinet. In the 1995 electionsto the Odisha Assembly eight women memberswere elected. Among them Smt. NandiniSatpathy, Parama Pujari, Usha Rani Panda,Bijayalaxmi Sahu, and Saraswati Hembram werethe prominent and high-flying members havingprevious political experience. But Shri J.B. Patnaikinducted only one woman member, Smt.Bijayalaxmi Sahoo, in his Cabinet, and was giventhe portfolio of Women and Child Development.On 9 th February, 1999 J.B.Patnaik resigned fromhis office and he was succeeded by GiridharGamango. He inducted Smt. Usha Rani Panda,Smt. Parama Pujari, Smt. Swaraswti Hembramand Smt. Bijayalaxmi Sahoo in his cabinet in

November - 2014February, 1999. But after super cyclone ofOctober 1999 he was removed from his post andShri Hemananda Biswal succeeded him. Heretained all the women ministers of the GomangoMinistry without leaving any one of them.Shri Naveen Patnaik assumed the chargeof office of the BJD-BJP coalition governmenton 5th March, 2000. Fourteen women memberswere elected to the Assembly for the first time.This was the highest number of women membersever elected to the Assembly. Shri NaveenPatnaik inducted two women ministers in hiscabinet. Dr. Kamala Das was included in theministry as the Cabinet Minister of Health, FamilyWelfare, Women & Child Development and Smt.Draupadi Murmu as a Minister of state forCommerce and Transport. But in 2002 hedismissed Dr Kamala Das from his Ministry onthe charges of corruption and after the reshuffleof the Ministry on 6th August 2002 he includedBishnupriya Behera in his Ministry as the Ministerof state for Women and Child Development. Healso suspended Smt. Kumudini Patnaik, Memberof Parliament from Aska constituency, in April,2002 to avert a possible split in the Parliamentaryparty. In order to prevent a formal split in theParliamentary Party, Bishnu Priya Behera, ShriPadmanav Behera were accommodated in theministry. The suspension of Kumudini Patnaikassumed significant, as she was the wife of seniorB.J.D leader and former Finance Minister, ShriRamkrishna Patnaik. Angry with the ChiefMinisters’ decision to shift him from Finance toAgriculture Minister, Shri Ramakrishna Patnaikhad resigned from the BJD-BJP ministry. In amark of revolt the Patnaik couple resigned fromthe BJD and joined the opposition CongressParty.The 2004 election elected 11 womenmembers Shri Naveen Patnaik inducted Smt.Odisha ReviewPramila Mallik,(BJD) as the Cabinet Minister ofWomen & Child Development and Smt. SuramaPadhy,(BJP) as the Minister of state forCooperation. [7] The trend of the 2009 AssemblyElection in Odisha was the poor representationof women candidates. This election saw just sixwomen candidates making it to the State Assemblyand none to Lok Sabha. The women memberselected to Assembly were Pramila Mallik fromBinjharpur, Anjali Behera from Hindol, SipraMallik from Kendrapada, V.Sugyana Kumari Deofrom Kabisuryanagar, Usha Devi from Chikiti andMamata Madhi from Chitrakonda. There werejust 118 women candidates in the fray for 147seats, the major culprits being the principal parties.The Biju Janata Dal had nominated just eight, whilethe Congress gave tickets to 14 women aspirants.The BJP nominated 14 too. Parties like CPI andCPI (M) did not nominate any women candidateat all. It is ominous for the cause of womenempowerment in Odisha. Talking about the issuedoes not make any sense if political parties donot practice what they say. Not nominatingadequate number of women candidates is anindicator in itself. [8] But after a couple of days ofher induction into the ministry as the Minister ofWomen and Child Development Smt PramilaMallik was asked to resign from the StateCabinet for her alleged involvement in dal scam.In the last week of May, 2012. Shri NaveenPatnaik recommended dismissal of Women andChild Development Minister Anjali Behera fromthe Ministry for her alleged support to ShriPyarimohan Mahapatra.Table -1Number of Women Legislators withPercentage of Representation 5196719901971199549

November - 2014Odisha ReviewTotal 47147WomenRepresentation 35451475891014116Percentage2.14% 3.57% 2.85% 3.57% 0.71% 2.72% 4.76% 3.40% 5.44% 6.12% 6.80% 9.52% 7.48% 4.08%Table-2Chart-1DISPLAY OF WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN PIE CHARTWomen Representation50

November - 2014Odisha ReviewChart-2RISE AND FALL OF WOMEN REPRESENTATIONTrends of Women Politics in Odisha:1.Parties hesitate to field womencandidates:Almost all parties hesitate to field womencandidates. Hence the number of womencandidates fielded by various political parties hasalways been very low as compared to theirnumbers in the population. Among women whomanage to rise in the political echelons, in spite oftheir ability in administration and the art of politicalarticulation, very few women reach the level ofcabinet ministers.2.Less Important Portfolios:Mostly they remain deputy ministers orministers of state. When women reach the fewministerial positions, they are generally assignedportfolios in the social service sectors of Health,Education, Social Welfare, Women and ChildDevelopment etc.3.Most parties resorted to tokenismand symbolism:Another trend of women representationin Odisha reveals that most parties resorted totokenism and symbolism when it came torepresentation of women. Women issues werenot taken up by parties in a serious manner nortranslated into programmes, policies andlegislation nor were they mandated specifically toaddress issues of women.4. Women Cells working as ancillary bodies:Almost all political parties set up awomen’s cell or wing but they worked as ancillarybodies. Very few women were able to captureseats of power. The number of women in thelegislatures remained very small. Very few womenreached the position of party president or leaderof legislative party.5.Legacy of the Past :The political mobilization and participationof women has been impressive in the IndianNational Movement. They belonged to the elitistgroups. It is worth-noting that the politicalmobilization of women and their participation inelections has steadily increased since the firstGeneral Elections of 1952. Women likeA.Laxmibai, Subhadra Mahtab, Kiran LekhaMohanty, Sarala Devi, Saraswati Devi joined realpolitics during this period.51