Empowering women: The silver lining enabled by decentralisation

A silver lining for inclusive growth in India was drawn by the 73^rd Constitutional amendment made in 1992, which mandated and promoted the participation of women in panchayat raj institutions (PRIs) at village, taluk, and district levels. These provisions were momentous and were expected to promote social, economic and, political empowerment of women. Equal opportunities for women to participate in panchayat activities and work for community development are enabled by political empowerment. It is likely that both social and economic empowerment are attained with political empowerment. The government of Karnataka enacted the Karnataka Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Act 2010, which makes provision for increased reservation of seats for women in PRIs from 33% to 50%. This provision allows women to contest for elections and serve the society. Although their entry in to politics has been ensured through affirmative action, questions arise on whether this has resulted in their political participation and inclusive development. This review has tried to look in to this nexus through the literature in the Indian context. A strive has been made in this paper to review the literature to explore how some these provisions have stimulated the participation and empowerment of women.