Diffusion of Power:Gender as a factor for women leaders at the Grassroots Democratic Institutions of Rural India: A Study from an Indian State

Even before 73rd Amendment of the Indian constitution democracy at the grassroots level had been attempted giving  limited power to the people at the local level, both rural and urban, but not on a very regular basis. But this landmark amendment besides institutionalizing democracy at the grassroots, made women representation mandatory reserving 33% of seats for them in the elected bodies. Women representatives at the grassroots (panchayat levels) are said to outnumber even the population of some small countries like the Scandinavian ones. However, they suffer from the charge that they do just proxies for the male folks (their husbands, brothers or other male relations). Almost all power structures in India have been patriarchal in nature. How the women induction into Grassroot Democratic bodies have transformed politics is a subject matter of query and curiosity. Do women face handicaps for being women when they sit or work face to face with men in institutions where power and policies matter ? How much effective they have been in policymaking or influencing policies? The paper seeks to study changing nature of gender in the power structures of village democracies (Panchayat systems) while giving a picture of gender relations in the state (Odisha) in general and the rural society in particular