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BJD, BJP vie for women voters to tip the scales in Odisha
According to the Election Commission, of the 33.6 million eligible voters in Odisha, 16.3 million are women.
At the heart of the contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha is the scramble for winning over the women voters who, leaders of both the parties admit, are key to determining the poll outcome in the state.
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The eastern state, where the Lok Sabha and assembly polls are being held simultaneously, will next vote on May 20, 25 and June 1. The state has already voted for four parliamentary seats and 28 assembly seats on May 13. The results will be declared on June 4.
According to the Election Commission, of the 33.6 million eligible voters in Odisha, 16.3 million are women.
Both the BJD and the BJP rely on women voters to tilt the scale in their favour.
Women voters have outnumbered men in turnout since 2000, and this is perceived as a key factor behind the BJD’s victory in the state polls for five straight terms. As it fights to retain power for the sixth straight term, the BJD touts the financial and social empowerment of women through its Mission Shakti programme as a testament of its women-centric policies.
Launched in 2001, the programme allows women to earn income from Women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs), which are provided interest-free loans up to ₹10 lakh. The state government claims that around seven million women associated with nearly 600,000 SHGs are benefitting from the programme.
But the reality is more complex.
At a SHG for women in Kandhamal’s Boudh district, Momita and Tarini (both go by a single name) oversee the work of running a canteen. The remuneration after spending on food and other overheads, they said, was barely enough to run their own kitchens. Both women sought better financial opportunities, underscoring how inflation and prices of essentials have put a strain on their pockets.
The women also wanted more handholding by the government to scale their operations and become a profit-making venture.
“There is not enough sale at the canteen. The location could be one reason. Our work hours are long and the remuneration is not enough,” said one of the women involved in the venture.
The BJD, for its part, maintains that while there is focus on women-centric policies, the process keeps evolving.
Priyabrata Majhi, spokesperson and media coordinator of the BJD, said empowerment of women is one of the key development initiatives identified by the state.
“It is well known that economic empowerment of women significantly contributes to their social empowerment. As such helping women to achieve economic independence by enabling them to have independent employment and income has been accorded the highest priority. Therefore, promotion of SHGs was adopted in 2001 as a key strategy for achieving women’s empowerment,” Majhi said.
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Last year, with an eye on women voters, the Naveen Patnaik government announced 10 days of additional casual leave for women government employees, a step that now allows them to take 25 days of leave in a calendar year. The government also enhanced allowances for Mission Shakti functionaries.
In its election manifesto, the BJD promised to extend the benefits of the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) to grassroots women workers, community support workers, anganwadi workers, and ASHAs in addition to social security pension.
The BJD also accused the BJP of wanting to weaken SHGs. When the BJP cried foul over the BJD’s proposal to organise a trip of women SHG members to Dubai during the ongoing election and put a stop to the visit, the ruling party used it as an opportunity to claim that SHGs were under threat.
The slugfest between the two parties over SHGs and the claims of empowering women are not lost on Momita and Tarini. There is awareness among women about the value of their vote, they said, sounding apprehensive about the promises being met. “Price rise”, they added, was their biggest concern.
BJP’s promises
The BJP, which has made Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda of women-led development a centrepiece of its election manifesto, contests the BJD’s claims.
“Women empowerment is the priority of the Modi government. We have already announced our commitment to have 25 lakh (2.5 million) lakhpati didis (millionaire sisters), increase the monthly salary of each anganwadi worker to ₹12,000 and raise the salary of anganwadi helpers to ₹8,000 per month and start Mo Medhabi Jhia Jojana for BPL girl students that will provide an assurance certificate of ₹2 lakh at the birth of a girl child that can be cashed at the age of 21,” Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is contesting from the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat, said.
Dismissing the BJD’s claims about empowerment through SHGs, he said the state government is “trying to pass it off bank’s money as theirs.”
“The interest free loan is the bank’s money that the BJD handles. The money is part of the rural development ministry’s livelihood mission. The Union government services 7% of the interest whereas the state government services only 4%,” he said.
Training his guns at the BJD government, Pradhan said the CM should explain why the graph of crime against women is increasing year after year. “He should explain why some ministers and their kin have been accused of crimes such as rape and murder and why Odisha is among the four states with the maximum cases of murders of women?” he added.
The BJP also claims that the situation of women in the state has worsened in the last four years. “While the central government has started a nutrition campaign to control the welfare and gender equality of women, the state government has not given importance to solving this problem. Odisha has the second highest number of kidnapping cases in the country. In 2021, the number of cases of violence against women reached 14,853, which is very alarming,” the BJP has said in a document that it describes as a charge sheet against the BJD government.
Women in state politics
Both the parties are also claiming credit for political empowerment of women. While the BJP is basking in the glory of having piloted the women’s reservation bill that was passed in Parliament last year, the BJD says it took the lead in giving 33% reservation for women in assembly and Lok Sabha polls much before the passage of the law.
“With sustained effort on women empowerment, more than 55% women got elected during latest rural and civic elections, while 21 of 30 zilla parishad presidents are women which are the results of Odisha’s continued effort to empower women in every sphere of society,” Majhi said.
Tracing the journey of women leaders in Odisha, a senior political commentator, requesting anonymity, said the credit for giving women a platform in politics goes to former chief minister Biju Patnaik, the father of incumbent CM.
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Nandini Satpathy, a former Union minister, became the first woman chief minister of Odisha in June 1972 although she was not a member of the assembly. She was elected to the assembly from Cuttack in the 1972 bypoll.
“After Naveen Patnaik came to power in 2000, there were 14 women members who were elected to the assembly for the first time. This was also the highest number of women in the assembly and two of them were inducted in the cabinet. One of these ministers was Droupadi Murmu (who is now the President of India),” the political commentator said.
