Political Participation of Upper Caste and Dalit Women A Comparative Study of Bathinda Rural Assembly Constituency

Abstract

In recent times women political participation has emerged as an important issue in democratic societies. Political participation is not limited only to voting, but it also related with people s participation in all other political activities. Women who constitute half of the world population without their equal participation democracy cannot be successful. Many efforts have been made on National, and International level for increasing women participation in politics. In Indian constitution provided all the equal rights to women as men. There are also provisions of reservation of seats for the women of various categories in local bodies. Women in India get full opportunities to participate actively in politics. But it is pity that women participation in politics has not reached on satisfactory level. There are very few percent of women participating in decision making bodies at national and state level. In local bodies women have come to politics because seats are reserved for them. But their active participation is still issue of concern. There is also a gap between the participation of the women of various categories. Dalit women are considering most deprived and weaker section of the society and their participation in politics also in miserable condition especially in rural areas. newline That s why I had been selected this topic for my research work. My research topic is Political Participation of Upper Caste and Dalit Caste women: A comparative study of Bathinda Rural Assembly Constituency . In the whole of research work primary and secondary data was used. To test hypothesis and achieve the objective of this study I have selected the sample of 300 respondents from Bathinda Rural Assembly constituency in which 150 from upper caste (100 Non elected and 50 Elected) and 150 Dalit women (100 Non-elected and Elected) were selected randomly. For data collection two Questionnaires has been designed. After the collection and analyses of data many results are found.