The Catholic Church in Kerala plans to launch an aggressive strategy for the political empowerment of women.

Beena Sebastian, secretary for the women’s commission of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, says the immediate reason for the move is to prepare Catholic women ahead of local elections scheduled for 2010 in the state.

The bishops recently released a gender policy that sets aside 33 percent of seats for women in Church bodies.

Kerala’s Marxist-led coalition government plans to go further than that and reserve 50 percent of seats in local government bodies for women. On Sept. 8, the state government convened a special session of the legislative assembly to pass the necessary legislation. Media reports say passage is expected on Sept. 16.

The new law would entitle women to head half the state’s 999 village, 152 block and 14 district councils, besides the 52 municipalities and five municipal corporations. Together these have 20,554 seats.

Sebastian calls the bill “a blessing in disguise” for the Church, which plans to train Catholic women to contest local elections. The training includes setting up parish women’s groups for social action.

“Creating awareness about women’s conditions in general is also part of our program. We aim for women’s overall development, including political empowerment,” the 52-year-old sociologist told UCA News.

According to Sebastian, such training is necessary because Kerala’s on-the-ground reality is different from what has been projected.

The state’s female literacy rate is 88 percent, well above the national average of 54 percent. Additionally, the life expectancy of women in the state is 72.4 percent, compared to the national average of 60.4 percent.

However, Kerala has a “darker side,” because it also ranks high in domestic violence and harassment of women in their workplace, the Catholic woman leader said.

The Church is also concerned about the shift in Kerala’s gender ratio. Even though this stands at 1,058 women to 1,000 men, the state only had 963 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to the 2001 census.

“We fear the fall in juvenile sex ratio is due to selective abortion of females,” Sebastian said. The Church wants to educate families about gender equality to remedy the situation, she added.

Sebastian also said the Church decided to work toward women’s political empowerment after it noticed Catholic women generally stay away from politics.

In 1996, Kerala reserved 33.3 percent of seats in local bodies for women, but few Catholic women have fought those elections. “Without women’s political empowerment, neither the Church nor society can march forward,” Sebastian said.

She predicts “revolutionary changes in our Church” after the Church implements its gender policy, beginning with the move to ensure women have 33.33 percent representation in its decision-making bodies.

“It’s true the Catholic Church has not provided platforms for women to express their views, but the new gender policy will help the Church to become gender-sensitive and gender-friendly,” she added.

However, some political parties have criticized the Church for trying to empower women in the name of religion.

K.K. Shailaja, a legislator who heads the Marxist women’s wing, says the Church move smacks of sectarianism.

“I’m not against the Church sensitizing women to social issues or creating awareness about their rights. But organizing them on religious lines will divide society,” she warned.

Hindu Aikyavedi (united front) leader K.K. Sashikala charges that the Church hopes to assert its political clout in the state in the name of women’s empowerment.
Such allegations do not keep Jane Mary, a Catholic housewife, from welcoming the Church move.

“It’s very much needed. We don’t have a platform to address our issues. When the Church offers a platform, more women will come forward to join it,” she said.

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