The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign has ended up being a sham, show, and scam—especially as it missed the Beti Badhao part. Campaigns may be done in poetry, but governance and management require fully scripted prose. When Team India lifted their first ICC Women’s World Cup in Navi Mumbai after nearly 50 years, the Women in Blue became superstars overnight. However, the achievement was a well-curated effort of many years by many who knew that imaginations come true over time. Imagine Jhulan Goswami, Anjum Chopra, and Mithali Raj at the BCCI and ICC top positions!
Since history has been unkind to women, often erasing their contributions to human evolution in every field—including sports—names like Nur Jahan and Chand Bibi barely find mention. Only a few legends like P. T. Usha, Mary Kom, and Vinesh Phogat stand out in the wave of gender equality now reaching ministries and committees. Ideas may appear spontaneous, but they surface after diligent thought and persistent effort. So, imagining is important—but with caution.
The very notion that most women or girls aspire to succeed by doing what men or boys do is ingrained in our blood as part of cemented patriarchy. I am no big fan of cricket, a recreational sport, or of any activity that measures a woman’s success by comparison with men. But if cricket is the benchmark for women coming of age, let it serve as a beacon to imagine many more fields where women can—or have—outperformed when opportunity and responsibility arose. Yet, are the men in blue ready and willing to share the spotlight and success? Easier said than done, since they could not support the women in blue in the past. This reflects where our acknowledgment and appreciation of women’s contributions to society stand today.
Leading the country in positions and politics is something I insist all genders and generations should imagine. This imagination is not narcissism—it is the need of the hour amidst rising socio-ecological distress caused by man-made disasters born of capitalism, climate change, and the loss of human values.
To me, it is a matter of conviction to see a time in India akin to what Namibia achieved in its political evolution—an all-women leadership in the top three government positions: the President, the Vice President, and the Speaker of Parliament. When will India see a day when the Prime Minister, the President, the Vice President, and the Speakers of Parliament are all women? For decades, these positions have always been held by men. Let me extend this imagination to the Chiefs of Defence and all security forces, the Army, Air Force, Navy, ISRO, CBI, RBI, EDI, ECI, CJI, NITI Aayog, all ministries, and even IITs, IIMs, and universities where my own engagements lie.
Even the most educated and well-intentioned wo(men) may laugh it off—barring a few—while some friends may sarcastically say, “Why not one day?” without truly meaning it, hinting instead at my political aspirations. But I say this seriously—why not dream it today to make it happen one day? An all-women Prime Minister, President, Vice President, and Speakers of Parliament. Patriarchy runs so deep that even a woman President is called Rashtrapati, and the system is unwilling to make the position gender-neutral—unlike Mukhya Pradhan Mantri. Can India dream differently when we are not yet ready to think indiscriminately?
All-male (“manel”) leadership has been normalized for so long that it must now be challenged to create new possibilities. Yet, let us view it a bit optimistically: in nearly 80 years, men have ruled in all spheres and laid a solid foundation—including for the empowerment and development of women. Now, a small nudge is required in the male-led approach—to nurture women’s leadership (beyond nepotism).
The challenge to achieve this is both structural and situational. Leadership is a pyramidal structure, and the mass at the bottom affects the climb to the top. We face a serious crisis of critical mass in women’s political leadership in India. The top positions are often compromised by power plays and patronized by the majority of men at the base. Patriarchal mindsets among both men and women, coupled with the masculine history of political evolution, fuel the rise of more men, further reducing women’s chances to reach the top. Many women who do reach top positions are strategic tokens or products of nepotism—again, decisions primarily made by men. Moreover, the burden of guilt among women leaders for being public figures is heavy, with the added cost of family, peace, and personal needs. Importantly, men and male-made systems have failed to educate men to make space for women leaders, barring a handful of genuine male mentors.
During India’s freedom struggle, only a few women leaders found due place in history books. We rarely learn about many of them, and our knowledge remains limited to Rani Lakshmibai, Sarojini Naidu, Aruna Asaf Ali, Kamala Nehru, Annie Besant, and Kasturba Gandhi. Rani Lakshmibai is revered most because of her battlefield heroism—her reverence ascribed to masculinity. Many other women freedom fighters are overshadowed by the constellation of male superstars. From then on, we have failed to build robust institutions for nurturing women’s leadership.
Imagining all-women leadership may or may not depend on a critical mass at the base. When Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister, the political landscape was a male bastion, as it was when Pratibha Patil and later Droupadi Murmu became Presidents. These selections were often strategic, serving male convenience and dominance, thus diluting the dignity and ethics of the positions. It is another matter that Indira Gandhi worked her way to the top, but unfortunately, the presidential posts have been reduced to ceremonial roles. Even so, I accept that as a transition women must seize.
Considering the current 33% reservation debate, India has only 13.63% women MPs in the Lok Sabha—74 in 2024, down from 78 earlier. India began with just 4.4% in 1952, showing painfully slow progress. It dipped below 4% in 1971, crossed 10% only in 2009, and reached its highest—14.6%—in 2019. The Rajya Sabha too has only 24 women members in 2024. At this rate, India will take over 100 years to reach even 33%. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), India ranks 152 out of 185 countries, lagging far behind the global average. Rwanda leads with 63.8%, followed by Cuba (55.7%), Nicaragua (55.0%), and Mexico (50.2%).
We missed seeing women like Vijaya Raje Scindia, J. Jayalalithaa, Sushma Swaraj, and Sheila Dikshit in the highest offices in their lifetimes. Having leaders such as Mamata Banerjee, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, and Dr. Kiran Bedi occupy top positions would be worth imagining—especially when compared with some incompetent male leaders.
Here are a few examples of poor women representation in ministries I follow closely. In 78 years of Independence, India has had only one woman Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) and two Presidents (Pratibha Patil and Droupadi Murmu). Among 28 states and 8 Union Territories, only two have women Chief Ministers—Mamata Banerjee and Rekha Gupta. The Ministry of Water Resources (now River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation) has had only two women ministers (Meira Kumar and Uma Bharti) out of 30 since 1985. The Ministry of Agriculture (now with Farmers’ Welfare) has had none among 33 since 1948. The Ministry of Urban Development (now Housing and Urban Affairs) had only one woman minister (Amrit Kaur). The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had only four—Amrit Kaur, Indira Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi, and Jayanthi Natarajan—out of 57 since 1947. The Ministry of Education has had just one (Smriti Irani) out of 33, for only two years in 78 years.
Across states, cities, villages, bureaucracy, organizations, corporates, and academia, the picture is equally grim. The top-most political positions are the culmination of leadership at these lower levels. In other sectors, too, the scene is thorny. For example, Justice B. V. Nagarathna—India’s first potential woman CJI—will serve only 36 days in 2027. The Chiefs of Defence, Army, Air Force, Navy, ISRO, CBI, RBI, EDI, ECI, CJI, NITI Aayog, etc., remain male-dominated. Barely a handful of women occupy top positions in IITs, IIMs, and universities. For instance, Preeti Aghalayam became the first woman to head an IIT—as Director-in-Charge of IIT Madras Zanzibar campus in July 2023. The first woman director of an IIM was Professor Neelu Rohmetra (IIM Sirmaur, 2017), followed by Anju Seth (IIM Calcutta, 2018).
The irony is that there are not enough women available to occupy these positions—the man-made system simply does not produce enough women leaders. Despite all-time low leadership quality across genders, women’s representation remains dismally poor. This is because the Beti Badhao component is missing from the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign.
At a recent event at the India International Centre, women leaders from various parties participated. BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, an IAS officer turned Lok Sabha member, summed it up: “Women belong to only one caste, and that is womanhood. It is a war for women to be in politics, and we have to fight with knowledge, experience, and grace.” Women have come a long way—from 22 in 1957 to 74 in 2024—but to increase the count, a more realistic approach to representation is vital. More importantly, we must imagine. The bill reserving seats for women in Parliament lacks consensus largely due to a lack of imagination. While debatable, reservation is a necessary starting point in a male-dominated system.
Leadership should be gender-neutral, and filling top slots with women merely for tokenism is naïve. But it is unacceptable that a country producing more educated women than men still fails to nurture enough women leaders. Beti Badhao must be strengthened alongside Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. For this, men’s empowerment and development are crucial—because empowering women is insufficient if men remain ignorant of gender equity. Literacy in perception and preference for women’s leadership is essential.
Remember, the United States did not elect Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris to the presidency—showing even America is not yet ready—while India achieved this long ago. Yet, Zohran Mamdani choosing an all-women transition team in NYC may bring women in DC one step closer. Long ago, Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister of India, 1966–77 and 1980–84) and more recently Angela Dorothea Merkel (Chancellor of Germany, 2005–21) exemplified leadership that reshaped their nations and advanced women’s roles worldwide.
Several countries are now walking this path. Currently, Barbados, Iceland, and Trinidad and Tobago are the only republics where both the Head of State and Head of Government are women. Others include Giorgia Meloni (Italy), Mette Frederiksen (Denmark), Ingrida Å imonytÄ— (Lithuania), Evika Siliņa (Latvia), Mia Mottley (Barbados), and FiamÄ“ Naomi MataÊ»afa (Samoa). Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Namibia, Suriname, and Tanzania have women Presidents as combined heads of state and government. Catherine Connolly, the new President of Ireland, defended women’s leadership in her acceptance speech, saying:
“I will be a president who listens and reflects and who speaks when it's necessary. I will be a voice for peace, a voice that builds on our policy of neutrality, a voice that articulates the existential threat posed by climate change, and a voice that recognises the tremendous work being done the length and breadth of the country.”
---
Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava is an entrepreneur, researcher, educator, speaker, and mentor. She has recently joined the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg at the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Sea (ICBM) in Wilhelmshaven as Senior Scientist to lead a Trilateral Research Project, WADCouple. More about her work can be found at: www.mansee.in, www.edc.org.in, www.wforw.in, www.woder.org
Comments