Nagaland: Empowering the women’s vote

Purnungba Longkumer
Dimapur, Jan. 24 (EMN): The Election Commission of India celebrates National Voters’ Day on January 25, to encourage, facilitate and maximise enrolment, especially for the new voters.

Women voters, in particular, have been politically active for well over a century, but they haven’t always held the most visible or traditional roles.

Speaking to Eastern Mirror, Director of Pathfinder, Vitono Haralu shared that in the context of a Naga society, which is a patriarchal society, ‘unfortunately women continue to be governed by men even in the 21st century’.

“The sad part is that women empowerment has been more of a slogan and campaign but in reality women have not given the platform to exercise the rights and also explore their leadership and it is the drawback of all this campaign.

‘Theoretically it sounds good but partially the capacity building and exploring the ability of youth and women is yet to happen in Nagaland,” she said.

She stated that people need to know that ‘their vote is not for sale.’

She added that women are not a decorative piece, ‘used in the name of women empowerment’. “Women comprises of 49 percent of the population of Nagaland and it cannot be mentioned that women are not participating in election but it is the moral question that if they are participating in the right way or not.

“They cannot blame the candidate alone but even the citizens of the constituency should be able to take responsibility and be accountable of one’s action,” she said.

“Clean election campaign should be an ongoing process and a mission and the beauty of clean election was started by the church and people are responsible to take it forward and unfortunately in Nagaland in all election, they have used violence, money, alcohol and use all kinds of evils to distract in order to win the election,” she stated.

Haralu added that women have been contributing to this patriarchal system because it is women who teach their children and ‘this is done consciously and unconsciously’.

She added that women have also become “conscious and aware about themselves and they are also beginning to take a call even on voting and can be seen in number of women participation in election and in political parties as well.

Convenor of Forum for Naga Reconciliation, Rev. Dr. Wati Aier shared that one of the highest rights a person can have is the right to vote.

‘It can decide the future of the people and make a difference in this world, they can bring about extraordinary possibilities,’ he said.

Aier said that when a women’s right to exercise the vote is taken away, ‘they are killing the democracy and every citizen in Nagaland have to realise that one must not give away the vote but ‘must stand and fight against the element’.

He added that ‘every individual must realise that one cannot let others steal their vote and when one loses the right to vote of their choice, one has lost his freedom’.

Director of Nagaland Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation Trust, Banu Haralu said that all the voters should understand the importance of voting and ‘it is a mark of our faith and integrity’.

Haralu added that at the same time, one has to understand the circumstances of ‘non-deliverance of governance’, as people were often in a dilemma, confused and in doubt about the strength of the vote. She said that when ‘one exercises vote with integrity, then one can contribute and hope for a better future’.

When asked about women’s decision during election, Haralu said that political awareness is also important for women to vote with integrity.

“However it becomes difficult for women to take decisions individually and in order to take better decision there is a need to form support group in a particular village or clan.

“Sometimes it might even come at the cost of peace in the kitchen but if it is done with integrity, ultimately in the end it would be good for everyone,” she added.

Haralu stated that every individual has the right to vote for someone of their choice and ‘if that voting right is taken away because of some element, it is against the practice of the very nature of democracy and should not encourage mass voting decisions’.

She opined that the best way to vote is to have a discussion with the family first on whether the ‘candidate is good or not.’

“The level of awareness in every issue should begin from home as Naga people never question as what the government is doing.

“Women can be more pro-active with their votes and it begins with small things or forming a group and finding small support group with likeminded people; political awareness is very important ,” she added.

A political observer stated that village council takes most of the decisions in rural areas on the pretext of providing development to the village by the concerned candidates.

He claimed that during the last election, ‘absentees votes were kept aside in order to follow clean election campaign directed by the church leaders but in some villages it might have gone for proxy voting.’ He added that it might be due to less awareness and directive of clean election campaign in rural areas, as it was not fully effective.

“Proxy policy would always be there unless strict measures are not taken,” he said and added that free and fair election must be followed so that the elected representative does the right work.

“And if not the candidate would prefer to recovery the amount he had invested during election and even development work would be done according to his wish,” he said.

While speaking to a homemaker regarding her choice of vote, she said that all the decision depends up on her husband. She added that she is also not that interested in politics and does not ‘feel bad’ for voting based on her husband’s decision.