Fewer women voters in state than sex ratio

MUMBAI: Maharashtra's sex ratio is unfairly skewed in favour of men, but if the state's 2014 electoral rolls are anything to go by, the ratio of femwale voters to male voters is even worse. There are 893 wo8m8en voters for every 1,000 men eligible to vote, way below the state's sex ratio (926:1,000).
Officials with the state's electoral wing admitted that fewer women were registered as voters than men and said that their numbers ought to have pushed up the ratio to at least 900, considering that the 2011 Census says there are more women in the 0-17 age group, that is, the group of ineligible voters.They said women and young voters could alter the overall polling per8centages if the ratio improved.
A total of 11% more women voters voted in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, compared to the 2009 figures. The increase in male voting percentage was around 9%.
"The overall voting percentage in the 2014 LS polls was 60.3%, and it is clear from statistics that the voting percentage of women was not far behind that of men. But the same voting percentages showed a significant difference during the 2009 elections. This could be attributed to poor gender ratio and poor registration of younger voters," said an official.
"Young and women voters are trendsetters and crucial for even a politician fighting elections," the official added.
The electoral rolls also show that the proportion of female voters per thousand male voters decreases as the voters get younger. Thus, the ratio of women among people more than 60 years old is higher even than the gender ratio in the general population (926), but it declines as voters get younger.
"While in the age-group of 50-59 the gender ratio is 922, in the 30-39 age-group it is 913. The ratio falls to 661 and 556 for the 19-24 and 18-19 age-groups respectively," said a senior official.