HYDERABAD: Out of the 31 districts in the State, 11 have a higher number of women voters than their male counterparts, as per the final electoral roll published on the State Chief Election Officer’s website.
However, that number doesn’t reflect in the representation as majority of the constituencies in these 11 districts either have had male MLAs in the recent past or parties, for the upcoming State Assembly elections, have fielded male candidates.
The 11 districts with higher number of women voters are Nirmal, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Jagtial, Rajanna Sircilla, Medak, Jogulamba Gadwal, Suryapet, Warangal Rural, Bhadradri and Khammam. In these women voters dominated districts there are a total of 38 constituencies, from which only four women candidates won and went on to become MLAs after the last Assembly elections.
Similarly, for the upcoming Assembly elections, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) included just four women while announcing its list of 105 candidates. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came out with their second list a few days ago, too has just seven women candidates. These statistics, quite obviously, raise one question: why there are such low number of women candidates?
However, the query should be, why is there a need for more women representation in the State today than before?
The reasons are manifold.According to the Telangana State Development Report 2017, childcare and women’s health have suffered in the last few years. It is important to note that the report was prepared before the division of the districts in the State.
For instance, newly-formed woman-heavy district Nirmal was a part of erstwhile Adilabad. Now according to the report, only 30.6 per cent mothers had full antenatal care in that district. Similarly, women in newly-formed Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts, which before the division were part of a combined Nizamabad district, had 62.6 per cent antenatal care.
Discouraging trend
The State has also seen higher average medical expenditure of a rural woman during their stay at a hospital. According to the report, while the national average for an average expenditure of a rural woman at a hospital is `12,295, the average for State stood `26,639. In the employment sector, “the work participation of urban females is low. On the other hand, the higher percentage of the workforce in rural areas as well as among marginalised social groups and rural females, in particular, is discouraging in terms of type and employment.”
