Shaping of the Women Constituency in Indian Elections

Context

Rajeshwari Deshpande’s study, ‘Shaping of the Women Constituency in Indian Elections: Evidence from the NES Data’ analyses political participation of women in India.

Key Highlights

• Voting Conduct & Agency: Women’s balloting patterns and decisions are regularly left out, with political events treating them as a homogeneous institution and not thinking about elements like caste, class, and religion.
• Welfare Programs: Political events often frame women as passive beneficiaries of welfare programs like Ujjwala and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, reinforcing a based image.
• Voting vs Political Power: Despite extended turnout, women’s political participation stays restrained beyond voting.
• Male Migration Impact: In states with large-scale male migration, women’s voter turnout has accelerated, particularly in socially and economically ‘backward’ areas.
• State-Specific Voting Patterns: In states with strong regional parties (e.g., Tamil Nadu, Kerala), women’s decisions align more with local actions as opposed to national gender based developments.

Women’s Political Participation in India

• Unlike many countries wherein the gender gap in political participation started narrowing in the Nineties, India noticed this shift best in the 2010s.
• In the 2019 trendy elections, woman voter turnout barely exceeded male voter turnout, with women making up 49.5% of the voters.
• In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, women had a slightly higher vote casting share (65.8%) as compared to men (65.6%).
• Women, mainly in rural regions, are becoming more politically conscious, lively, and involved in village-level decision-making.

Global Goals

• Women’s equal participation and control in politics are vital for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via 2030.
• SDG 5 makes a speciality of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Balanced political participation and power-sharing among men and women in decision-making is a key goal set in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Factors Influencing Women’s Political Participation

• Socio-Cultural Norms: Traditional gender roles and cultural expectations often limit women’s public and political involvement.
• Education and Literacy: Higher literacy rates and education levels empower women to participate more actively in politics.
• Economic Independence: Women’s team of workers participation and financial independence can improve their political corporation.`
• Caste, Class, and Religion: Women’s political selections are formed by their caste, class, and religious identities, influencing their voting conduct and party affiliations.
• Political Party Strategies: The outreach and engagement of political events with women through centered guidelines or welfare schemes impact their participation.
• Social Movements: Women’s involvement in social movements and activism can fortify their engagement in formal politics.
• Regional and State-Specific Factors: Regional political contexts, such as the power of local parties and issues specific to states, can form women’s political conduct.

Conclusion

• The decentralization of governance which is taking place for the last decade has elevated the importance of measuring participation of women in decision making. 
• Proper gender budgeting has already been labored out for inclusive growth of women.
• With more responsive statistics on women participation, better gender budget projects goal to move the country closer to a gender equal society.

Source: The Hindu

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. What are the continued challenges for Women in India against time and space? (2019)

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