What EC data on women participation in polls says

Women voters’ turnout has risen from 49.1% in 1971 to 65.8% in 2024. The last two general elections even saw female turnout surpass male participation

While democracy calls for diverse representation, traditional gender roles continue to restrict women’s participation in political spaces. These challenges are exacerbated by intersecting identities such as caste, class, religion, and region. Women face barriers in voting, campaigning, and leadership roles, as well as disparities in political knowledge and attitudes, despite the efforts by institutions such as electoral management bodies (EMBs), political parties, and civil society organisations (CSOs).

Women voters wait in queues to cast their votes at a polling station during assembly polls at Kangpokpi in Senapati district. PTI Photo

India’s general elections last summer — data for which the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made available — highlight both progress and persistent challenges. Women’s engagement with the electoral process has undergone significant shifts. The number of female electors has seen a considerable rise — from 130.6 million in 1971 to 476.3 million in 2024 — reflecting demographic parity. But true political representation continues to elude. The elector gender ratio improved from 910 to 946, but progress has been uneven across regions. States such as Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have achieved near-equal representation in electoral rolls (women comprise a little over 50% of the rolls in both states). In contrast, states such as Bihar (47%) still face significant gender gaps. The strides by the former can be attributed to voter registration drives, awareness campaigns, electoral literacy initiatives and mobilisations by CSOs.

Women voters’ turnout has been a bright spot, rising from 49.1% in 1971 to 65.8% in 2024. The last two general elections even saw female turnout surpass male participation. The turnout numbers, while generating much euphoria, also underline women’s continued underrepresentation in political leadership, party hierarchies, and legislative bodies. This, in turn, highlights the structural gaps in India’s democratic architecture that restrict women’s engagement to merely the formal act of voting while curtailing their access to platforms of governance. This disconnect has been the topic of deliberations, underscoring the need for political parties to cater to women better, evident in the many women-centred schemes launched, tailored campaigns, and policy promises made (on critical areas of safety, education, economic empowerment and personal agency).

Regional disparities persist in voter turnout. Northeastern states like Assam (81.71%) and Arunachal Pradesh (81.07%) and southern states like Kerala (71.86%) show strong participation. Conversely, Bihar (59.45%) and Uttar Pradesh (57.22%) lag due to socio-cultural barriers, insufficient voter mobilisation efforts and logistical barriers. These trends underscore the need for what political theorist Anne Philips called substantive representation and not merely descriptive representation, a movement that necessitates the transcendence of numerical representation to ensure that women have actual policymaking power and influence.

The tendency among political parties to field women candidates from ‘unwinnable’ constituencies, thereby limiting their chances of success, is a case to the point. While the number of women contesting elections has witnessed a rise, success in translating their candidacy into meaningful representation is still limited and fraught with systemic challenges, pointing towards placement strategies deployed by the political parties. This also has a party-wise variation. Going by the 2024 election data, parties such as the BJP (44.29% success rate) and the Congress (31.71% success rate) demonstrated relatively effective candidate selection strategies. However, parties such as the BSP (0% success rate, 97.37% forfeiture rate) and CPM (0% success rate, 71.43% forfeiture rate) failed to replicate such showing. This disparity reveals how tokenism continues to undermine genuine political empowerment for women.

These numbers speak of progress and the institutional efforts made; but they are also a revelation of the stubborn persistence of structural barriers, financial constraints and tokenism. True democracy requires more than just numerical parity. Stakeholders, including political parties, CSOs, and EMBs, must recognise the strategic imperative of making elections more equitable. There is also a need for systemic reforms, including financial empowerment programmes, leadership training, and the effective implementation of gender quotas to address these barriers. A push for reservation for women culminated in the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023, which provides for reserving a third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. This legislative milestone signals progress, but there’s still a long way to go. Achieving gender parity in political spaces requires more than just numerical representation; it demands substantive power-sharing and systemic reforms. India’s democracy needs bridges between participation and power.

Khushboo Srivastava is assistant professor, and Pulkit Buttan is teaching fellow, Centre for Electoral Management Studies, TISS, Mumbai.The views expressed are personal