Accountability of Public Institutions towards Women

Accountability is a core element of democratic politics and good governance. Accountability from a gender perspective requires that the decisions of public actors can be assessed by women and men equally. Gender-sensitive accountability systems require, therefore, not just women’s participation, but also institutional reform to make gender equality one of the standards against which the performance of decision makers is assessed.

Empowerment is now increasingly seen as a process by which the one’s without power gain greater control over the lives. Many factors hinder women’s political participation, such as political parties being slow to respond to women’s interest, under-investment in women’s campaigns, cultural barriers, and conflicting demands on the time of women candidates due to their domestic and social responsibilities. Social change can be catalysed by affirmative steps like securing girl’s rights to education, building the women’s leadership and economic capacities, setting quotas for women’s seats in local and national governments and providing women with information on their legal rights. The present study was an attempt to know that how women are able to become accountable in the public institutions. In this study, the researchers took 50 elected women and men respondents of Shimla district. The random sampling technique was adopted for selecting the sample from different blocks. The tool used for obtaining information was an Interview Schedule. The findings of the study revealed that after 50% reservation for women, the women are now more accountable in the various institutions but today also the women did not have property in their names.