Women corporators attend the Patna Municipal Corporation board meeting at SK Memorial Hall on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Dec. 15: Numbers don’t matter at Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) when it comes to decibel. With 37 out of 72 ward corporators being women, they are a clear majority in the civic body. But male members make most of the noises in meetings. Women mostly remain mute spectators. Most of them speak out only when their husbands want them to.

This phenomenon resurfaced during the 19th PMC board meeting today. The male corporators bawled their lungs out to make themselves heard. Their women counterparts chose to remain taciturn.

A source said this was quite common in the civic body meetings. Some of the women members do contribute to the debates by voicing their opinions and asking questions but that is a rarity.

“If you take a look at the hall full of corporators and senior corporation officials, the women beat the men any day by the sheer power of numbers. But if you are looking for a fiery speech by a woman ward corporator that will make heads turn, you are going to be disappointed,” said a senior PMC official.

“Yes, they have the numbers but they hardly contribute to the work we do,” said the official.

Most of the women ward councillors are chaperoned by their husbands to these board meetings, said a source. The husbands sit at the back of the hall and keep instructing their wives.

“Most of the women have been unable to step out of the shadows of their husbands. About 80 per cent of them are still dependent on their better halves for guidance,” said the PMC official.

The official said: “Most of them were fielded by their husbands in the corporation elections because of the 33 per cent reservation for women representatives in the civic body. Only two or three women corporators — like Pramila Verma, Jyoti Gupta or Abha Lata — take an active part in the proceedings. Others play the part of a mute audience,” said the official.

What the official said was corroborated by the activities of the women ward corporators in the board meeting today. A number of them were busy on their cell phones even as their male counterparts took part in the debates.

Some of the women corporators, probably tired of the civic discussions, dozed off. Most of them just shook their head to signify their support or opposition to various proposals.

The only time some of them stood up to voice their opinions or put forward demand of civic amenities was when their husbands passed them chits with instructions.

Councillor of ward number 4, Abha Lata regretted the passive role played by her fellow women ward councillors.

“Most of them are disinterested in the proposals put forward for the people. Though they are my colleagues, I wish they were more vocal and took the trouble to understand the problems at the grassroots level,” said Lata.