Fight for equality spurs women student politicians on

NEW DELHI: While they regularly make the headlines, women student politicians don't have an easy time in a sphere largely ruled by men. Women leaders, many of whom were in the limelight during the recent fracas at Ramjas College, have to work harder to prove their worth.
They also face intense scrutiny and harassment, mostly of a personal rather than political kind. But almost always, it is this fight for equality that spurs them on.

Shehla Rashid Shora, who is pursuing her MPhil degree in JNU, grew up a politician in heart, yet she said being elected a member of the students' union at university was not easy. “I had to convince many that a girl from Kashmir could rally people to their cause,“ said Shora. In the years since, Shora -who has caught the eye for involvement in campus movements from the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar last year to the recent Ramjas College violence -has learnt to handle the sexism that comes with politics.


“What you look like is always a point of discussion,“ revealed Shora. “You cannot look too plain, neither too glamorous. Rivals can shift any debate to your appearance and it can become damaging.“

Never a fence sitter, Shora, then a student at the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar, began by rallying students against the harassment of women under the garb of ragging there. “I was uncomfortable about this, and lodged a complaint with the college provost,“ she said. But as usually happens in the case of women who dare to stand up, people started spreading rumours that she herself had faced harassment.

JNU, with its culture of debate and discussions, opened the doors for a certain social openness that she had never experienced. In this environment of debate, Shora developed her political sense and re alised this was the way she wanted to go.

Kanwalpreet Kaur, president of AISA in Delhi University, concurs that women are unfairly assessed on their appearance. “Subjects like my height crop up in completely unrelated issues,“ she rued. Misogyny exists in all forms of politics, be it in girl students being discouraged from holding student union events or relatives pontificating that politics is unsafe for women. Kaur, brought up in a politically charged home with a right leaning father, paid scant attention to such nay-sayers.

In her second year at Indraprastha College for Women, a college not affiliated to DUSU, she on a visit to North Campus, she chanced upon ABVP rallying against the socalled love-jihad. “I read the pamphlets being distributed and recognised the sexism that was being forced upon couples,“ she said. That was her introduction to politics, though it wasn't easy for her as a woman to take up union politics when many women's colleges, including Kamla Nehru, Lady Shri Ram, Jesus and Mary and Gargi, have consciously remained non-DUSU institutions.

“In student politics, you need somebody to push you up the ladder,“ conceded a member of another student organisation, adding that the more visible leaders in the current ABVP set-up would have had to have been endorsed by someone higher up on the pecking order. And yet, it is not as if women aren't important by themselves. In fact, Priya Dabas was among the prominent leaders who brought ABVP back to power in DU in 201 after eight years in the doldrums.

Dabas was studying in Shyama Prasad Mukherji College for Women when she got involved with the RSS-affiliated student organisation. A strong campaign strategy and focused attitude brought her electoral laurels in 2010, she said. “The other candidates and I never made superfluous promises as the other parties did,“ she recollected.

However, her time as a politician was not an easy one.“Like other women leaders, I had to work extra hard to build my identity . There is this perception that politics is not a good choice for girls because it brings a lot of negative attention,“ said Dabas. “And yes,“ she disclosed, “women are indeed targets for character assassination. However, that should not be a reason to not enter politics.“

A similar sentiment was expressed by Nupur Sharma, who was elected president of DUSU for the 2008-09 term.“Yes, we all go through some form of harassment, but the redeeming fact is that my peers know that if they raise a finger against me, I will give back as mercilessly,“ she asserted.

Sharma testified that anyone who wanted to enter the political field has to have a thick skin and a strong mind.“It does not stop at women alone. Even Rahul Gandhi is forever being ridiculed,“ she said.She conceded that there are more men than women in influential posts in most student political organisations. “However, we are in a far better place than we were 10 years ago as far as women in campus politics and in BJP and ABVP are concerned,“ concluded the woman, who graduated from student union elections to the more sterner test of an assembly vote when she took on the Aam Aadmi Party's icon, Arvind Kejriwal, in the 2015 campaign.