Women are bound to have a decisive say in who wins in Nellithope where Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy has crossed swords with AIADMK’s Om Sakthi Sekar.
As the polling results crystallised on Saturday, the historical trend of women voters turning out in larger proportions than their counterparts held true for the latest by-election as well.
Well before polling began at 7 a.m. at the 26 booths in the constituency, women from all walks of life had lined up to exercise their franchise. Nellithope has an electorate of 31,366 comprising 16,418 women and 14,939 men. In fact, the Nellithope demographic is a virtual microcosm of many other constituencies in Puducherry where women voters outstrip men.
In the 2016 Assembly elections, 4,94,412 women (85.44 per cent) had cast their votes against 4,94,412 men (82.46 per cent). Even if you take the figures for the 2011 general elections, women voters had maintained their relatively higher level of electoral participation with 86.97 per cent (3,65,161) of the women voters exercising franchise as against 83.97 per cent men (3,28,107).
Addressing the media after the closure of polling , Chief Electoral Officer V. Candavelou said 14,344 women (87.37 per cent) had cast their votes as against 12,551 men (83.99 per cent).
Interestingly, the maximum polling on Saturday also seemed to provide a pointer as to how women have managed high levels of electoral participation — the spikes in polling happened between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and between 3 p.m. and the end of polling at 5 p.m. during periods when women in the household would have their chores out of the way.
“Such a trend is not unremarkable. In fact, women participation in elections has historically been on the higher side in the Union Territory as well in other neighbouring states,” Mr. Candavelou said.
One of the important reasons for the high levels of participation among women voters could be an extended outcome of their access to basic education, says P.K. Parida, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Pondicherry Central University. “Since the time of French rule, the absence of gender discrimination in access to basic education has helped girls become socially aware even when they are young. And, this awareness is manifest in their participation in spheres of social and economic activity, including their enthusiastic engagement with the electoral process,” Prof. Parida said.
However, while the higher level of electoral participation of women has become entrenched as a historical trend in Puducherry, what remains remarkable though is that women as a constituency are yet to enjoy any sort of proportionate representation in politics.
In over more than half a century of the political history of the legislature, only seven women have become MLAs since 1963. In fact, there was no woman voice in the previous Assembly.
The silver lining in the fourteenth Legislative Assembly is the presence of four women legislators — the highest representation of women ever in the history of the House.
