Best of Both Sides: Women’s reservation can give a voice to those who haven’t had one
It is the small yet impactful changes happening in India’s villages which show that a democratic transformation is underway. Here, the meaning of nari shakti is being quietly, but decisively, redefined — it is visible in how women’s political participation through the Panchayati Raj institutions has initiated a subtle yet profound restructuring of power relations. Women are becoming stakeholders by exercising legitimate authority over public resources — deciding where a hand pump is installed, which welfare scheme is prioritised, and how village needs are articulated. Empowerment, for them, is not performative radicalism but the everyday practice of decision-making, anchored in the institutional power conferred on them by reservation, which is not charity but a corrective measure.
