what is the status of women in politics
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Answer:
STATUS OF WOMEN IN POLITICS
A. Thanikodi and M. Sugirtha
The Indian Journal of Political Science
Vol. 68, No. 3 (JULY - SEPT., 2007), pp. 589-606
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Answer:
The movement for women’s suffrage began in the early 1900s in response to a national movement for suffrage, even though vast majority of neither men nor women had a right to vote the British colonial rule before 1947. After Indian independence from Britain, the Indian Constitution in 1950 officially granted women and men suffrage. Prior to universal suffrage, provincial legislatures had granted women the right to vote.
Madras was the first to grant women’s suffrage in 1921, but only to those men and women who owned land property according to British administration's records.[5] The rights granted in response to the movement towards suffrage were limited to qualifications of literacy and property ownership, including property ownership of husbands.[4] This excluded vast majority of Indian women and men from voting, because they were poor. This changed in 1950 when universal suffrage was granted to all adult Indian citizens.
In 1950, universal suffrage granted voting rights to all women. This is enshrined in Article 326in our constitution. India is a parliamentary system with two houses: Lok Sabha (lower house) and Rajya Sabha (upper house). Rates of participation among women in 1962 were 46.63% for Lok Sabha elections and rose to a high in 1984 of 58.60%. Male turnout during that same period was 63.31% in 1962 and 68.18% in 1984.
The gap between men and women voters has narrowed over time with a difference of 16.7% in 1962 to 4.4% in 2009.[6]
Voter turnout for national elections in the past 50 years has remained stagnant with turnout ranging between 50 and 60%. State elections have seen a growing trend in women's participation, and in some cases women's turnout is exceeding male turnout.[7] Increased turnout of women was reported for the 2012 Vidhan Sabha elections (legislative/state assemblies) with states such as Uttar Pradesh reporting 58.82% to 60.29% turnout. In the 2013 assembly elections, women’s overall turnout was reported to be 47.4%, and male turnout was 52.5%. Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Daman and Diu, and Puducherry all reported higher turnouts among women than men in 2013.[8]
Increased participation is occurring in both rich and poor states in India. The sex ratio of voters has improved from 715 female voters for every 1,000 male voters in the 1960s to 883 female voters in the 2000s.[9] The Election Commission of India (ECI) has sought to increase voter turnout by cleaning up electoral rolls and removing missing or deceased members. Voter outreach has included door-to-door voter registration, and in 2014 elections, voters will be issued a photo id with polling station information to increase voter turnout.[7][10] Increased voter turnout in India is also partially due to the women voters. ECI has sought to encourage voter registration among women and participation through education and outreach on college and university campuses. Growing participation has also been attributed to increased security at polling stations.[11]
2014 elections
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Women turnout during India's 2014 parliamentary general elections was 65.63%, compared to 67.09% turnout for men.[12] In 16 out of 29 states of India, more women voted than men.[12] A total of 260.6 million women exercised their right to vote in April–May 2014 elections for India's parliament.