Drawing on the latest round of elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions in the state of Haryana in 2016, this article interrogates the substantial increase in the number of Dalit women representatives, based on fieldwork in a specific village. Since both Dalit and non-Dalit women present narratives of non-participation in the functioning of the village panchayat, it is argued that the increase in Dalit women representatives was not by design, but by default, due to an amendment of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act 2015. Overall, in the studied village, women continue to remain marginalised in the local representative bodies, and gender-based quotas have only ensured numerical visibility of women.

本文基于2016年哈里亚纳邦Panchayati Raj Institutions的最新一轮选举，根据特定村庄的实地调查，质疑达利特女性代表人数的大幅增加。由于达利特妇女和非达利特妇女都表示不参与村庄panchayat的运作，因此有人认为，达利特妇女代表人数的增加并非出于设计目的，而是默认情况下，是由于对哈里亚纳邦Panchayati Raj的修正2015年法令。总体而言，在所研究的村庄中，妇女在地方代表机构中仍然处于边缘地位，基于性别的配额仅确保了妇女在数字上的知名度。