Women calling the political shots is a welcome change

The actual number of women representatives in authoritative or decision making positions may still not be that encouraging but their rising participation in the country’s political arena is one of the most significant stories of the last decade. At least that’s what a recent Special Research Report from the Economic Department of State Bank of India titled – ”General Elections 2024: Celebrating Women Led Festival of Democracy”, suggests. Women voters are now playing a significantly bigger role in elections than ever before. In the 2019 general Lok Sabha elections, female voter turnout was higher than men, which has been declining from 1991, when the gap was more than 10 per cent. The gap was stagnant at around 8.4 per cent on an average for four elections between 1996 and 2004. The rise in women voter turnout has been even more pronounced in state Legislative Assembly elections. Out of the 23 major states, where state assembly elections happened in the last five years, indicate that women voters outnumbered men in 18 states. Interestingly, out of these 18 states, the same government was re-elected in 10 states, where women turnout was more than men turnout, driving home the point that the rising participation of women in the political arena is certainly a significant story in Indian democracy.

Even as women are voting in significantly large numbers there is still an untapped potential of registered women voters, who may have not voted. For example, the untapped women voter base that is women not turning up are voting is chiefly in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Will 2024 be a bellwether? Well, trend analysts are of the view that if a portion of these women could be made an innate part of the polling exercise progressively, the electoral outcome may witness marked changes. SBI estimates, for instance, suggest that up to 13 crore more women could thus vote in the 2024 elections in addition to 33 crore women voters that might vote in 2024. This could potentially turn out to be game changer in 2024 elections and onwards. It is pertinent to mention that at present, less that 15 per cent of the total members of the 17th Lok Sabha are women (five per cent in the first Lok Sabha) while in state legislative assemblies, women on average constitute less than nine per cent of the total members.

There has been a constant upward trend in the registration of women voters, with the gender ratio now 948, up from 928 in 2019, with men accounting for 49.7 crore voters compared to 47.1 crore women (registered). Women are the deciding factors when it comes to electoral outcome in Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. Going forward, women are expected to be the deciding factor of electoral outcome in Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Sikkim. That’s what poll analysts believe. The narrative till a few decades back was centered around ‘missing women’. Will it now get moulded to a ‘women-in-the-middle’ approach as better education, rising awareness and economic uplift break taboos empowering the equal half in decision making process?. Time will tell. Now, all eyes are on the women voters, vis-à-vis the ensuing general elections.