NEW DELHI: Just like the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, women voters are expected to play a crucial role in the upcoming 2019 parliamentary elections, said political observers on Wednesday. In 2014, the percentage of women voters surpassed that of male voters in nine states. Coupled with a rise in the voter population from 39.7 crores in 2014 to 43.17 crore in 2019, this time also women voters impact the outcome of the polls significantly. During the revision of electoral rolls for 2019, women expressed their desire to participate in the electoral process.
Sanjay Kumar, Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies said, “Looking at past data, it looks like that the women’ turnout is going to be reasonably very high in 2019. Even in recent state polls, turnouts among women were higher than males in several states. Over the past few years, the gender gap in voting has narrowed down.”
“It was the emergence of a new constituency: Women. In the past, women voters might have been marginalised in politics, it has been said, because they tended to vote in lower numbers than men. In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, more women than ever before come out to vote ... The gender-wise pattern of voting in the 2014 elections was path-breaking,” said an analysis note of the Election Commission.
In the overall voter turnout – 58.19 per cent in 2009 and 66.44 per cent in 2014 – at the all-India level, there was a remarkable closing of the gender gap between men and women voters: at 1.55 percentage points (compared to 4.42 in 2009). It was the lowest ever to date. The male voter turnout percentage was 67.00 per cent, while 65.54 per cent female voters cast their ballot.
The last Lok Sabha polls threw another remarkable fact that in some states, the percentage of women voters surpassed that of men. According to the EC however, this was not such a new phenomenon in states in the Northeast but it was happening for the first time in other states. “All political parties have started paying attention to this fact. Look at the government policies in last five years. So, parties have noted the high turnout of women voters,” said Kumar.
After 2009 elections
The trend of increasing women voters is seen in the post-2009 phase of the Assembly elections in different states. About 55.8 per cent of eligible women voted in 2009, compared with 58 per cent of total voters. Prior to 2009 the narrowest gender gap was in 1984-85