The imperative of political empowennent of women cannot be overemphasized. In...

The imperative of political empowennent of women cannot be overemphasized. India took a historic initiative of empowering women by reserving one third of the seats in more than 300,000 institutions of local self-government to women. As a result, today, out of the some 3.2 million elected representatives in these local bodies, there are 1.2 million women, about 86,000 of whom serve as chairpersons or vice chairpersons of their respective units.