Express News Service
DEHRADUN: Despite constituting more than 48% of total electorate in Uttarakhand, only a handful of women have been given poll tickets by major parties in the state. While the leaders of both BJP and Congress denied any partiality against women aspirants, the numbers reflect that major players have repeatedly failed to promote women in electoral politics.
The BJP has fielded eight women while Congress has given tickets to five. Meanwhile, the AAP, which is contesting for the first time in the state, has fielded only two. Madan Kaushik, state BJP president, said: “The party has given tickets to women who have displayed the ability to win. We have always promoted women and youth.”
According to percentage-wise estimates, the BJP has provided 11% of total tickets to women while the figure is just 7% for the Congress. Ganesh Godiyal, state Congress president, also denied any bias against women. “Ticket distribution has been done through a rigorous process. Those who showed the probability of winning have been provided tickets.”
The state has a total 82.37 lakh voters out of which 81,43,922 are general voters and 93,964 are service voters. Out of the general electorate, 42,24,288 are males while 39,19,334 are females.
Despite leading in the gender ratio in seven out of 13 districts in terms of population, women in Uttarakhand still lag behind in gender ratio in the overall voter list. Officials in the State Election Commission, however, claimed the gender ratio in voter list has been calculated after due process.
Sowjanya, Chief Electoral Officer of Uttarakhand, said: “Steps have been made to improve the gender ratio in the voter list and the results will be visible in the course of time. A comparison of gender ratios in the voter list and overall population across 13 districts indicate that in seven districts, women lead in terms of gender ratio in overall population, but when it comes to gender ratio in terms of voter list, women lead only in Rudraprayag district.”
Rudraprayag has 1,021 females per 1,000 males in the voter list while other 12 districts have less than 1,000 females per 1,000 males in the voter list. The new voter list released last week revealed the state has 928 female voters per 1,000 male voters.
Explaining the reason behind these differences, officials said that during the 2011 census, migration was plaguing the state and the men who left the state in search of livelihood were not counted.
“The men had left behind their families. During the 2011 census they were not counted but women of the family were. This inflated the ratio of females per 1,000 males. However, the voter IDs of these men remain in the state and that is why the difference in the gender ratio in voter list,” said another poll official.
In June 2021, Uttarakhand had emerged as one of the worst performing states in terms of sex ratio at birth. The state’s sex ratio stood at 840 females per 1,000 males against the national average of 899.
