The Assembly elections in five states saw an 18 per cent increase in the vote share of women. Significantly, the woman voter turnout was 60 per cent as against 58 per cent male voter turnout .
Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quarishi pointed out that 59.85 per cent women came out to vote in 2012 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh alone against 41.92 per cent who voted in the 2007 polls. The turnout is more significant because Uttar Pradesh has an adverse gender ratio of 816 women to 1000 men.
All-India Democratic Women’s Association president Subhashini Ali attributed the substantial increase in women voters to the peaceful and orderly manner in which the voter slips were distributed across all states.
In Kanpur, from where Ms Ali hails, the voter slips, carrying a photograph of the individual voter, were distributed to every voter 10 days before she had to cast her vote.
The government official distributing the voter slips also exhorted the women to caste their vote. And because it was all done in a methodical and systematic manner, women felt reassured enough to come forward in large numbers.
Activist Ranjana Kumari, heading the Centre for Social Research, who travelled extensively across several constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, said, “For the first time, I witnessed individual women voters casting their vote. This is unprecedented but obviously women no longer required the safety of larger groups.”
Ms Subhasini Ali attributes two other reasons for the larger women turnout. “A huge number of out migration of men is taking place in eastern Uttar Pradesh and a sizeable younger generation of women voters have chosen, I suspect, to caste their vote to a candidate of their choice unlike in the past where women caste their vote in favour of the candidate decided upon by family elders.”
CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat said succinctly, “Women have always been good voters. It is a pity that political parties recognise them as voters and not as candidates.”
Akhila Sivdas, heading the Centre for Advocacy and Research, believes this large turnout is also a reflection of rising prices and the campaign against corruption by social activists.
“It is women who feel the brunt of a lack of electricity, price rise, no drinking water and lack of other amenities,” Ms Akhila Sivdas said.