the critical issue . Casting their voice

The 2019 election is upon us, and there is little else in the news other than announcements of alliances and differences, of tickets and candidates, and rallies and speeches.

Barring a few articles and programmes, there’s not been much, so far, about women in the Indian election. How will they vote? Who will they vote for? How do women figure in party manifestos? How many women candidates are being fielded?

And yet, given the moment in time when this election has come, or, perhaps we should say, given the context of this election, surely we should be thinking about women too?

The past four-and-something years have been filled with important and contradictory developments related to women. There has been new legislation, new questions, outing of men in positions of power over allegations of sexual harassment and predatory sexual behaviour. There has also been a worrying fall in women’s labourforce participation, a steep rise in violence, victories of gaining entry to hitherto forbidden places of worship, attempts to criminalise triple talaq (a strange and confused move by the government, given that it is already illegal), doing away with Section 377, and the increasing spread of the politics of hate and violence.

Then there’s all the noise about Beti bachao, beti padhao , and gas connections and toilets in homes. Even that taboo subject — menstruation — is now out in the open.

Given this, it should be logical that parties field more women, talk more about women and include them in their manifestos.

And, to some extent, this is happening; but there are also some perplexing developments.

Many analysts predict that more women than men will vote in this election: Although the number of registered male voters is higher than female, women’s keenness to vote is growing. A report from Centrum, a financial services group, titled Elections 2019: The Swing Factor, notes that the turnout of women voters is increasing at a faster rate than that of men, and adds: “By 2019, it is plausible that women’s turnout will meet — or even exceed — that of men.”

Many of these voters are young, and the old canard that women’s vote is dictated by the family and community can no longer be assumed to be true.

But the news isn’t all good. A recent detailed study by journalist Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala provides a disturbing statistic: About 21 million women voters do not figure in any electoral roll.

When translated into constituencies, it means that in each constituency nearly 38,000 women’s votes will be missing, a figure that can make the difference between winning and losing.

The seriousness of the problem is not lost on the Election Commission, which has, over time, met with women’s groups to discuss ways of addressing these issues. Women’s groups too have been active in raising them.

Two years ago, members of the National Alliance of Women met with the Election Commission and impressed upon them the need to focus more on getting parties to take women seriously. The Commission had put its weight behind some important changes, such as the question of the candidate’s financial assets, bringing in NOTA and so on. Why, then, not bring in changes relating to gender inside parties, in the numbers of candidates they fielded and more?

In the last few months the Commission has been discussing these issues with political parties and, as pointed out by Anjali Mehta of Justice Seekers, a civil society group, they are also bringing in more women to help conduct elections, putting in place all-women booths, and have committed to bring in women voters.

Mehta points out that “in the recently concluded Karnataka elections, the Commission ‘voiced their disappointment at the low percentage of tickets given to women (8 per cent).’ As well, there have been recent announcements about all-women polling booths in Karnataka and Delhi.”

The good and the bad continue to go together. Despite having been around for over two decades, the Women’s Reservation Bill has not succeeded (yet another failed promise of the ruling party’s 2014 Manifesto).

But Mamata Banerjee’s list of candidates has 41 per cent women nominees; Naveen Patnaik’s BJD will field women candidates in 33 per cent of Lok Sabha seats in this election. Rahul Gandhi has promised to bring in 33 per cent reservation in Parliament if his party comes to power.

The next step is to see how these will translate into reality.

More recently, women’s groups have begun to put together their concerns: They’re calling meetings, press conferences and holding discussions to remind political parties of what is at stake. They’re creating women’s manifestos: Nafrat ke Khilaf — Bekhauf Elaan is the manifesto of a group of grassroots Muslim women activists; the National Alliance of Women has put out its Womanifesto; Women’s March — India is another platform that had organised a nationwide march to call attention to women’s issues in light of the upcoming election.

How will all this pan out? It’s difficult to say. But that our elections will no longer be only the story of Indian men is amply clear.

Urvashi Butalia

Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director of Zubaan

blink@thehindu.co.in

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