Why Don’t Women CMs Stay for Full Term?

mschandar June 26, 2018August 5, 2021 0 Comments Anandiben Patel, Mehbooba Mufti, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharati

With a tremendous increase in crime rate against women in India, the increasing rape percentage and gender discrimination against women are not expected to end any soon. Such incidents would have been in control, if there were more women premiers in politics representing the states and nation. Women have been sidelined everywhere. From Sushma Swaraj (12 October 1998 – 3 December 1998) to Uma Bharati(8 December 2003 – 23 August 2004); from Anandiben Patel (22 May 2014 – 7 August 2016)to Mehbooba Mufti(4 April 2016 – 20 June 2018), the women Chief Ministers weren’t allowed to continue in the office for full term. Most of them were either made them to discontinue or resign from their posts.

Janaki Ramachandran, from Tamil Nadu remained in power as the Chief Minister for only 23 days. Her cabinet was dissolved by the central government on the pretext of law and order failure. Recently, the former Chief Minister of Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti who had created history by becoming the first women to hold the C.M post in J&K, had to resign as she was blamed for her lenient approach towards violent forces and misrule.

One strong reason behind this barrier could be that the women representatives are more qualified than their male counterparts or have comparatively less criminal record. In order to contest for a C.M or M.P’s seat, it requires lots of funds and support from powerful politicians, which most of the Indian women leaders cannot manage. A developing country like India needs a strong group of women representatives to address women based issues from the political side.