Women’s Empowerment: a critical assessment of reservation for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions at Gram Panchayat level, Himachal Pradesh, India

In today’s academic world, empowerment of women is considered to be one of the main issues, when we talk about gender equality, social justice, economic growth and poverty. Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-3 (www.un.org) also aims at promoting the gender equality and to empower women. In India, instrument of electoral reservation is being used to ensure participation of women in the political decision-making at local level. This study makes a comparative analysis of the effects of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of reserving seats for women of different caste groups of two neighboring Gram Panchayats (local village councils) in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. The result is encouraging and inspiring, where most people belonging to different caste groups, welcome this step of government and feel that at least some women elected to the local body, irrespective of their caste, are considered as empowered.