1.2 million Indian women in positions of power

she is one of 1.2 million. That's the number of elected women representatives in rural India, the largest anywhere in the world.

It's not just about numbers. Village women appear to be genuinely empowered by election to panchayats. Or so says the first AC Nielsen-ORG Marg study commissioned by the ministry of Panchayati Raj. The study has found that 15 years after the 73rd Amendment Act of the Constitution reserved one-third of all panchayat seats for women, they are a force to reckon with. Even more encouraging, it found that they have emerged from the shadows of their male patrons. (via Agents of change march on-View From Venus-Sunday TOI-The Times of India).

Is this a success of Indian democracy or a cardboard cut out of success? While this figure may not prove actual empowerment (to use a modern phrase), it does show acceptance of women in positions of authority and power - in significant numbers.After all, 1.2 million in positions of elected positions of power is something significant!

All those arrivistes, who are awaiting the bra-burning, Western denominated women lib, as signs of arrival and the true coming, should take a 2ndlook at what real feminism is - or at least, what the oldest feminist civilization looks at the feminine.