Process Of Active Political Participation And Empowerment Of Dalit Women Participating In Local Self Governance In Maharashtra, India An Exemplary Of Inclusive Grassroots Democracy

Sammanfattning: Conducted in Marathwada region of Maharashtra state, this study focused on process of active political participation and empowerment of Dalit women at local self government. Three questions guided the study, 1) what factors facilitate and/or restrain political participation of Dalit women at grassroots level? 2) What indicators show active political participation and empowerment of Dalit women? 3) What intervention strategies can be used for effective political participation of Dalit women? In-depth unstructured interview method was used for collecting qualitative data. The measure findings, factors facilitating political participation ranged from individual (Dalit woman herself) to the support systems like family, community, civil society, Dalit ideology, state machinery and legal mechanism. The restraining factors included individual status, political manoeuvring, corruption and proxy political representation, failure of the state machineries, ineffective training and failure of legal tool. The indicators of active political participation and empowerment showed their interrelatedness as active political participation means independent decision making and independence of decisions comes through empowerment. Intervention strategies for the state and civil society were further proposed on the grounds of the restraining factors emerged through the study. These strategies are also meant to direct facilitating factors to be more effective.