While the participation of women in Indian elections has gradually increased, their presence in Parliament and other governing bodies has continued to remain abysmally low ever since the first elections in 1952, data reveals.
Trends indicate that in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha polls, women voters will surpass men. However, trends also reveal that women will remain grossly under-represented in the decision-making process as India continues to hover way below the global average of the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments.
bccl/representational image
Albeit a sluggish representation, women voters, over the course of years, have actively taken part in the electoral process.
The gap between men and women turnout has reduced from 16.7% in 1962 to a mere 1.79% in the last Lok Sabha polls. Trends indicate that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the turnout of women voters is likely to be more than the turnout of men voters.
In the past, lack of freedom of movement for women or traditional practices which limited their participation in public life has had a negative impact on women¡¯s turnout in elections. Personal security has been another reason why women have shied away from the voting process.
Steps such as all-female managed polling booths -- where the entire staff, including the police and security personnel, are women -- has helped gain the confidence of women voters. The introduction of electronic voting machines -- which have curbed the practice of booth capturing -- has also helped in making voting safer.
bccl/representational image
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, there were as many as eight states where women¡¯s votes exceeded or were equal to the men's votes.
These eight states contributed 68 (12.5%) seats to Parliament. Or in other words, in 68 Lok Sabha seats (12.5%) women votes exceeded, or were equal to, the men's votes.
Of these eight states, two southern Indian states ¡ª Kerala and Tamil Nadu with 20 and 39 seats, respectively ¡ª were the biggest contributors.
In the 2014 general elections, there were as many as 15 states were women were electorally more active than their men counterparts. In these constituencies, the ratio of votes cast by women to total women electorate exceeded the ratio of votes cast by men to total men electorate. These 15 states amounts for 135 (nearly 25%) Lok Sabha seats.
bccl/representational image
In terms of absolute numbers, in 2014 there were a total of 814 million eligible voters of which over 397 million were women voters. A comparison with the votes polled for the top six political parties in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls would give an idea of the potential clout of women voters on India¡¯s electoral map.
Since the various caste-based vote banks are geographically spread out, their influence is limited. There are only a few pan-India vote banks, the importance of which is seldom realised by political parties.
For example, in the last Lok Sabha polls, the urban middle class played a vital in BJP¡¯s victory. For the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, farmers¡¯ distress has been on the agenda of several opposition parties.
Yet, none of the political parties, barring a few cosmetic initiatives and schemes, have made any tangible attempts to pursue the women voters.
A few weeks ago, few political parties did make a few pro-women announcements. Odisha chief minister was the first when he announced that one-third of his party¡¯s candidate for the 2019 general elections will be women. Later, Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress followed suit by releasing a list in which 41% of the candidates were women. Two days later, Congress president Rahul Gandhi made an emphatic pro-women pitch when he announced that if his party comes to power in 2019, it will pass the 33% women reservation bill and also reserve 33 per cent jobs in the government sector for women.
bccl/representational image
The active participation of women in the electoral process has failed to earn them a voice. Their numbers in parliament, and even in lower bodies, continues to linger way below the world¡¯s average.
According to data compiled by Inter-Parliamentary Union, the global average of women representation has steadily increased to 24.3% as of 2018. Meanwhile, in India, a mere 11.23% women occupy seats in both the houses ¡ª out of the total 788 seats (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) there were 89 seats held by women as of April 2014.
A region-by-region breakdown shows that the Nordic countries have the highest representation of women at 42.5% followed by the Americas with 30.6% representation.
India not only lags behind the developed world, but it was also behind several of the developing and under-developed countries.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women occupy over 23% of the seats. In the rest of Asia, the women representation is over 19%. Even in more traditionally conservative and patriarchal societies such as the Middle East and North Africa, the representation was over 18%.
Several of India's immediate neighbours had a higher representation of women in their parliaments. Nepal (32.7%), Afghanistan (27.3%), Bangladesh (20.6%) and Pakistan (20%) all have a far better representation of women in their respective parliaments.
bccl/representational image
Immediate neighbour Pakistan presents a converse, yet still, a grim picture. While in India, the participation of women has increased, the participation of Pakistani women in elections is the worst in the world. According to a survey of 59 countries, conducted by World Values Survey, the difference in men and women turnout in Pakistan was among the worst in the world.
Interestingly, Pakistan, as stated above, enjoys one of the healthiest percentage of women in its parliament at (20%), only slightly below the world¡¯s average of 24.3%.
The higher percentage of women in Pakistan parliament can be attributed to their reservation in the national assembly. Out of the 336-seat assembly, 60 seats are reserved for women. According to National Assembly of Pakistan, apart from the 60 reserved seats, in the current assembly, women occupy eight general seats and one non-Muslim seat, bringing the total number of women in Pakistan Parliament to 69.
Back home, at the state level, there were as many as 17 states which failed to elect even a single women candidate in the last general elections. Other than these 17 states, there were eight more states ¨C Karnataka, Rajasthan, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Odisha ¨C where women representation was below the national average.
However, there is a silver lining. In the last ten years, from 1999 to 2009, the number of women candidates who contested the LS polls has doubled from 284 to 556.
The current Union cabinet has five women handling different ministries, including the crucial defence and external affairs ministries. For almost a decade, five women politicians successfully set the agenda of Indian politics -- Mayawati, Sonia Gandhi, Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee and Mehbooba Mufti.