By Vinay Kumar
This week the Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah announced a cabinet reshuffle. The government of Karnataka over the last decade (2006-16) has had six Chief Ministers, three elections and two instances of President’s rule. The only thing that has been consistent is the number of woman ministers in the cabinet: none to one.
Let’s go back further and look at the number of women in the cabinet over the last 17 years (1999-2016). The current government (2013-..) has Umashree, Minister for Women and Child Development. The last government (2008-13) had one woman in the cabinet:Shobha Karandlaje. And Karandlaje is the only woman who has held multiple portfolios and held ones that weren’t either women and child welfare or ones the men didn’t want. Karandlaje held the portfolio for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (2008-09), Minister for Food and Civil Supplies (2010-12), Minister for Power (2010-13).
The HDK government (2006-08) had no women on the cabinet. And before that CM Dharam Singh’s cabinet had Bhagirathi M Gowda who held (surprise!) the Women & Child Welfare portfolio. SM Krishna would have been the model CM for the state if the four women in his cabinet held any of the vied-for portfolios beyond Women and Child Welfare or Kannada & Culture.
| No | Name | Year | Portfolio |
|
1 |
Umashree |
2013-present |
Minister for Women and Child Development, Empowerment of the Differently abled and Senior Citizens, Kannada Language and Culture |
|
2 |
Shobha Karandlaje |
2008-13 |
Minister for Rural development and Panchayat Raj (2008-09),
Minister for Food and Civil Supplies (2010-12) Minister for Power (2010-13) |
| 3 | Bhagirathi M Gowda | 2004-06 | Women & Child Welfare |
| 4 | Motamma | 1999-2004 | Women & Child Welfare
|
| 5 | Suma Vasanth
|
1999-2004 | Muzrai |
| 6 | Rani Satish | 1999-2004 | Kannada & Culture
|
| 7 |
Nafees Fazal
|
1999-2004 | Science & Technology / Indian Systems of Medicine / Homoeopathy |
Let’s do the math. In the last 16 years Karnataka has had 7 women cabinet ministers. And there are no signs that indicate the number will rise in the near future.
What do we expect from this reshuffle? Best case scenario: Minister Umashree holding on to her current portfolio.
Outside of Karnataka the situation is just as bleak. The highest number of women in a cabinet is four in West Bengal. Ten states have zero female representatives in the cabinet. And don’t forget that four states are having assembly elections in 2016 and barely 10% of the political candidates are women. How about that political future? Looking rosy yet?