Women take poll position, may beat men in voting in 2014 elections

Political parties, watch out! Recent trends show that participation of women in elections has been rising and they outnumbered men in voting in as many as 16 of the 20 states that went to polls since 2010.

Updated on: Mar 7, 2014, 21:14:08 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Political parties, watch out! This summer, women are set to challenge the dominance of men in deciding the fate of candidates in the 2014 general elections.

Recent trends show that participation of the fairer sex in elections has been rising and they outnumbered men in voting in as many as 16 of the 20 states that went to polls since 2010.

It should not come as surprise if Indian women voters create history in the nine-phase polling by registering a higher voting percentage than men.

The gap in voting between men and women has been falling since 1962 and was lowest in 2009 polls. It came down from 16.7% to 4.4% and the sharpest dip was seen between 2004 and 2009 polls, Election Commission data shows.

Former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi is confident that women will emerge as a strong electoral force in the 2014 elections.

"An analysis by the Election Commission showed that in 16 of the 20 states that went to polls after 2010, women voting percentage was higher than men. In fact, women are no more hesitant to show their electoral preferences," he said.

Political parties will have to reckon women power as two states – Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – that could decide the fate of the next party in power at Centre had recorded higher women participation then men. The two states have 120 Lok Sabha constituencies in the 543-member lower house.

About 60.5% of women came out to vote in the 2012 assembly elections in UP, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats, as compared to 58% men. In Bihar, which has 40 Lok Sabha constituencies, 54.5% women voted as compared to 51% men in the 2010 assembly polls.

But the exception in the long list of states favouring women voters is BJP leader Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. In the 2012 assembly polls in Gujarat, 69.50% women voters used their franchise as compared to about 73% men.

In the same league fall India's most developed states of Kerala, Karnataka and Assam.

However, the positive change would not have happened without the Election Commission's intervention.

In 2009, the EC conducted a nation-wide survey and found that women were reluctant to go for voting alone. The reason was they felt embarrassed at searching their names in the electoral rolls on the polling day at the booths set up by the political parties.

"We introduced the concept of a booth level officer to enroll voters and visit every home before the polling day to disburse slips with the polling booth number to help them to vote without seeking help of political activists. It has shown results in higher outcome of voters who were normally left out," said chief election commissioner VS Sampath.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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