KOHIMA: It’s late afternoon at Wedie-u Kronu’s modest house. Clad in jeans and a leather jacket she looks more like a working woman.But Kronu is a candidate from the Dimapur-III constituency. So are four other women in Nagaland, making history of sorts as this is the first time that five women are in the fray for elections in the State.
Yet the big question remains: will any of them get elected and make bigger history when voting takes place on February 27? Even after 54 years of its existence, Nagaland is yet to elect a single woman MLA.
The State has sent one woman to Parliament, though. Rano Shaiza got elected from the lone Lok Sabha seat in 1977, but after that Nagaland’s male-dominated society has not shared political space with women. Women have rarely been given election ticket, and they also haven’t strived for it.
But now young and progressive women like Kronu hope to bring a change. She is a candidate of the National People’s Party. The others are Awan Konyak of the ruling Naga People’s Front; Rekha Rose Dokru, an independent; K Mangyangpula Chang of the NPP; and Rakhila of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Kronu, 27, is a crusader of sorts against corruption with the Nagaland Public Rights Awareness Action Forum. “We need schools, roads and development. We need to fight against money power in politics.” she said.
“Meritorious candidates should get elected,” she said and claimed that mindsets were changing and money will not buy votes any longer. Konyak, 35, who was educated in Delhi University, said Naga society is patriarchal. “Male domination is very innate in Nagaland and for that women are also to be blamed as we have not claimed our space,” she said.
A candidate from Mon bordering Arunachal Pradesh, Konyak claimed she was getting a lot of support.
Rose Dokru, in her thirties, calls herself a farmer and an agri-entrepreneur. She said a lot of politicians promise four-lane roads, “But look at the roads in Nagaland, they are pathetic. Make only one lane but make it well.”
Contesting from Chizami in Kohima district, Rose also blamed traditional customs for women being left out of politics. “We are not allowed in village policymaking affairs, it has always been like this,” she said and candidly admitted that she was unlikely to win.
Women are closely watching the fate of the five candidates. A female receptionist at a Mokokchung hotel couldn’t say why no woman has been elected to the Assembly, but hoped this would change.Women in the political arena may be few but they constitute 40 per cent of the work force in the government. Currently there is one woman Indian Foreign Service officer, three IAS and two IPS women officers. Nagaland has also seen a woman Chief Secretary, Bano M Jamir helm the administration in 2013-14. Whether it is time for the political glass ceiling to break will be known only on counting day on March 3.