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Bhutan Politics - Elections |
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Bhutan Politics |
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Women
and the vote
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| As
more Bhutanese women become inspired and encouraged to play a bigger role
in public life, their path to the democratic process seems quite unclear.
Today,
women gather under the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Druk Phuensum
Tshogpa (DPT) umbrella to discuss social, women and youth issues. Meanwhile,
the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) has said that political parties
are not allowed to have separate women or youth wings. |
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"The
draft constitution prohibits segregation based on sex, religion, language
or social origin and having a group, which particularly isolates women
from the mainstream of the party politics, is unlawful," said election
commission officials.
"It
is also self-defeating because, on one hand, you have a women's wing and,
on the other, a youth wing, implying that the main party members are men.
ECB
officials said that the commission was not against women or youth issues
being brought to the limelight, but the constitution made it clear that
a wing, structured in such a way as to have its own charter and objectives,
was not permissible.
The
women members have, however, got around the commission's stance by renaming
the PDP women's wing as the department of women and youth.
"Initially,
we called it the PDP women's wing, but the ECB heard about it and was under
the impression that it was an independent body of the party or an NGO,"
said the director for PDP's women and youth department, Lily Wangchuk.
"But
that is not the case, we are a department within the People's Democratic
Party and not a separate branch. We have let ECB know that. Since then,
we have not heard from them on the matter and we have an understanding
within the party that it is okay to have a women and youth department,"
she said.
The
director also said that ECB has to understand that the department's intention
is not to start a feminist movement but to incorporate women's perspectives
in the party policies and plans.
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the other hand, women members of DPT call themselves the women's support
group of DPT and also the Amsu Detsen. They do not have a separate charter
and their goals and objectives are in line with the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa's
objective and goals, according to the members.
"We
are not an independent so-called 'wing' of the party. We are a support
group of the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa," said a member, Khandu Om. |
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"We
don't have a leader or a director, but we have women's working groups and
several focal persons in a few districts and, at the moment, our main objective
is to ensure that women understand their role in democracy."
The
PDP women and youth department members said that they were going ahead
with their activities, adding that the time to act was now.
On
October 4, a women's discussion forum on 'women's role in democracy' was
organised by the PDP women and youth department. However, it left the organisers
and volunteers dissatisfied.
The
reason was the turnout, which constituted only a handful of educated women,
housewives, businesswomen and lacked the participation of women in the
civil service.
"Civil
servants are told to remain apolitical but, if they are to vote, they need
to be informed and for that they need to attend such meetings," said Lily
Wangchuk. "But women are worried, because they are either civil servants
or wives of civil servants or armed forces."
"We
sent out about 500 invitations to educated women, but only about 100 turned
up," she said.
However,
those attending the meeting did not put up a lame show. Some were outspoken
and some were coy but they had the courage to face the crowd and give inspiring
talks on why women should raise their voices. Some however forgot the larger
issue and simply pledged support to the party.
Some
of the gaping issues, relevant to most Bhutanese women and society at large,
like sexual harassment in the work place, lack of care for old people,
uneducated and divorced single mothers, and a lack of economical day-care
centres for single as well as working mothers, were raised.
But
there were women, who had attended such a gathering for the first time
in their lives, and did not see housework or battery as issues.
Some
listened but were critical about the women and youth department's role.
"What I understood is that they are indirectly asking for votes by saying
that there is nothing they cannot do for us," said Kinley, 56.
On
the other front, a similar meeting was organised by the women tshogpa of
DPT on September 28. A DPT member, Rinzin, told media that women's involvement
in party politics and decision-making would contribute towards a better
tomorrow.
About
300 women from Lamgong Wangchang constituency in Paro attended the meeting
in Lango gewog.
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| Source:
Contributed by Kinley Wangmo Kinley, KUENSEL, Bhutan's National Newspaper,
October 2007 |
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