UNVEILING WOMEN’S VOICE IN REPRESENTATION A STUDY ON KARBI WOMEN IN ASSAM’S KARBI ANGLONG DISTRICT.

Gender and politics entails significance in view to women’s thin representation in the formal political institutions. The increasing crime against women in recent times shows no sign of abnegation since the male-centric policies have failed to address women’s plight. The transformation of the feudal social system in India to liberalization and subsequently globalization has altered the pattern of violence on women into more brazen, horrified and intensely traumatic. Patriarchy that sustains unequal power relations is one of the dominant reasons for the perpetration of violence on women. In view to this, the leadership of women could be the panacea in liberating them from the discriminatory social customs and practices. In fact, the lacuna in the leadership of men in dealing with the crime against women could be plugged up with the entry of women in the decision making process. In fact, women’s proactive role could ameliorate the women’s cause through the delivery of social goods like health care, education, income and above all to deal effectively with the rising crime against women. The North Eastern part of India suffers from connectivity lag, militancy, under development and leadership crisis wherein women suffers silently due to the lack of agency to reflect their plight and predicament. Karbi Anglong district suffers from a complex web of problems that the present leadership has failed to address due to their detachment from the grassroots people and engagement with their own interests. Women in such a situation are more vulnerable due to lack of gender sensitive policies. The funds are not being implemented at the behest of the beneficiaries and scanty representation of women in political institutions posits them and their pangs under the surface. Keeping this in view, the present paper endeavours to investigate the reasons for such scanty representation of women and the increasing influence of dynastic politics in the political landscape of Karbi Anglong. It equally attempts to explore the voice of the youths in regard to political representation of women and how such lacuna could be effectively addressed.