‘Women comprise 49% of Bengal’s electorate’

Kolkata: More women have enrolled themselves on the voter list compared to men after the 2019 Lok Sabha

elections

in West

Bengal

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The draft electoral roll published by the Election Commission on Wednesday showed there are 3,51,45,288 female electors in Bengal, which is around 49% of the state’s 7.1 crore electorate.

Since Lok Sabha elections last year, 10.9 lakh women have enrolled themselves as voters. Compared to this, 8.5 lakh men have enrolled as voters. Given the trend, the poll panel hopes that after completion of the electoral roll revision in Bengal, women voters in the state can cross the 50% mark.

According to EC officials, if women electors cross 50% mark, Bengal will become the fourth major state after Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to achieve this feat. Kerala with 51.4% women’s participation is best among the bigger states in the country. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have 50.5% and 50.4% women electorate respectively.

There are five smaller states — Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya — and Union territory of Puducherry where women voters are more than male voters.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, participation rate of women in Bengal was as high as 81.7%, which is the best among major states in the country. Only smaller states such as Tripura and Nagaland and Union territory of Lakshadweep have better women’s participation than Bengal.

There are 1,430 third-gender voters in Bengal. For the 2019 polls, this figure was 1,329.

“There are many reasons behind this high participation of women in electoral process but majorly it is because there has been reservation for women at grassroots, like in panchayats and municipalities. This helped women to actively contribute in the democratic process. Secondly, Bengal is perhaps the only state where no one is outside the purview of politics and this helped women become politically conscious,” said political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty.

The summary revision of electoral rolls started on Wednesday and will continue till December 15. Before that, the draft voter list will be published. The summary revision will be followed by a series of nominations, dismissals and hearings. The final summary revision work will continue until January 5. The final voter list will be released on January 15.

The EC, during its video conference with district magistrates, has asked all booth level officers to be present at the booths at designated hours because the panel does not want any complaint in this regard.