Faced with the prospect of fielding more women candidates in next year's BMC elections due to the state decision to reserve 50% seats in local bodies for females, political parties are looking beyond the usual options like wives and daughters of male politicians. Parties say this time they are scouting for women who are familiar to the public and have good educational background.

Despite failing to reach its target of 275 female candidates for Parliament in the general elections, a women’s political group has vowed to keep fighting and seek more female representation in future polls.

Fifty years ago, 17 African countries threw off the brutal and degrading yoke of colonialism. The 50th anniversary of African national liberation is an opportunity to critically reflect on the past five decades in post-colonial Africa, which began with luminous hope but have been marred by a leitmotif of grinding disappointment and failure. No one has suffered more from the continent's post-colonial misfortunes and misadventures than its women.

Without a second wave of emancipation for Africa's women, fifty years from now the continent is doomed to celebrate its liberation centennial grappling with the same dreams deferred and opportunities lost.