By IANS,
New Delhi : Analysing the voting pattern and results in the assembly polls in five states, experts said here Friday that empowered women voters have begun changing the electoral dynamics of the country.
“More women came out to vote in the recent elections because they looked for change and they had clear issues in mind, unlike the previous elections. The process will have its own dynamics in the times to come as the number of women voters is going up,” said N. Gopalaswami, former chief election commissioner.
Elections in five states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur were conducted in various phases over the last one month. According to the election commission, nearly 61 million women voted and 55 women MLAs were elected in the overall assembly polls.
In the discussion titled ‘Understanding voting behaviour of women in the 2012 assembly elections’, women journalists travelled across different districts of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to analyse the voting pattern among women.
The discussion was organized by UN Women, institute of social studies trust and UN information centre.
“Interestingly, Punjab saw 40 women being elected this time, in spite of the adverse sex ratio that the state has. This is an important observation showing the voter’s mindset in terms of choosing the leaders,” said Neerja Chowdhury, senior editor.
Political experts attributed the high-women voter turnout to women-centric social schemes also where the women felt connected to the democratic process.
“Panchayat election reservations for women has a huge role to play in the high voter turnout. Other than that, we also need to attribute it to schemes such as MNREGA that have infused some confidence in the women workers,” political analyst Zoya Hassan said.
But Hassan raised a larger question for the process to be a game changer in women’s emancipation: “There is a need to know if women voters also make a difference to the successes of women leaders. We need a stronger connection between women and political parties,” Hassan said.