India's two main political parties may be fielding three female candidates for the top jobs in states holding polls next week, but analysts say the number of women in Indian politics is still abysmally low.
The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is putting up former royal Vasundhra Raje Scindia in the western state of Rajasthan and Hindu nun and former federal minister Uma Bharati in central Madhya Pradesh for the chief ministers' posts.
Both are challenging male incumbents from India's main opposition Congress party headed by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
In Delhi state, the Congress's incumbent chief minister Sheila Dixit is warding off a determined challenge from the BJP.
Both parties -- which say they want one-third of the seats in the national parliament and state legislatures reserved for women -- have said their nomination of women for top jobs is aimed at giving women a higher profile in politics.
BJP spokesman Prakash Jadavekar said the party's nomination of two women for chief ministership is a first for the party in 50 years.
"This shows we are for the upliftment of women and we want more of them in politics," said Jadavekar.
But Zoya Hassan, a professor of political studies from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, dismissed the actions as tokenism.
"It is important that these candidates are women, but in my view it is a symbolic thing. Even when they win, they do not take up women's issues like violence against women, unemployment, women's education opportunities, etc."
In all, the BJP has fielded 56 women in the four states where state assembly polls will be held on Dec. 1 -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, neighboring Chattisgarh and the national capital Delhi.
Jadvekar admits women make up just nine percent of the BJP's total candidature.
The Congress has done little better. "We have 18 women candidates in Rajasthan, 35 in Madhya Pradesh and about 12 in Delhi. In Chattisgarh, we could not find suitable candidates," said a Congress leader, Renuka Chowdhury.
Political parties say the "winnability" factor of a candidate -- whether male or female -- overrides most other considerations.
But Jadavekar of the BJP admitted: "If the bill proposing the reservation of one-third of its seats in parliament and legislatures is made into a law, then we can do better."
The argument that men have greater "winnability" than women has been negated by a study by the Centre for Scientific Research, a New Delhi-based women's organization.
The study found that results from state polls in Delhi in 1998 showed that just eight percent of male candidates nominated by various political parties won their seats, while the winning percentage for women was 15.78.
In previous elections too, women candidates fared better than men, the study said.
In some constituencies, women have been fielded by the Congress and the BJP as part of strategy.
India has had just a handful of women as chief ministers and one woman prime minister, Indira Gandhi.
RSS