CHANDIGARH: Major parties have fielded only 51 women candidates the Haryana assembly elections. In the 2019 elections, 104 women candidates, including Independents, were in the fray.
An analysis of candidates’ lists shows the Congress has fielded 12 women, the highest, followed by INLD-BSP alliance (11), BJP and AAP (10 each), and JJP-Azad Samaj Party alliance (8).
The number of women candidates contesting as Independents will be clear on September 16, the last date for withdrawing candidatures. Savitri Jindal (74), mother of Kurukshetra BJP MP Naveen Jindal, is contesting as an Independent from Hisar against health minister Kamal Gupta.
Data shows that in the last 14 assembly elections in the state, only 87 women have become lawmakers. In the past five assembly elections from 2000, as many as 47 women have become MLAs. Only four women were elected as MLAs in 2000 out of 49 in the fray, 12 in 2005 and 9 in 2009.
In 2014, Haryana elected the highest number of women lawmakers at 13. In 2019, the number dropped to 9. Chandrawati was the first woman from the Haryana region to become an MLA from Dadri in the mid-term polls in PEPSU in 1954.
Haryana is notorious for its skewed gender ratio — 916 female births per 1,000 males last year. “Political parties shy away from giving adequate representation to women as their sole aim is to field candidates with maximum winnability chances. Your linkages with top leaders of the party get you tickets and the political patronage,” political analyst Ranbir Singh told this newspaper.
He said it is a paradox that women play key role in economy in rural Haryana but lack decision-making power due to cultural and social factors. “There is no change in attitude towards women as they have less bargaining power,” Singh said.