2029: By the end of this decade, a significant change in India’s electoral landscape is expected. According to an SBI report, women will vote more frequently in India than men starting in 2029.
The SBI report predicts that 68 crore voters will cast ballots in the next general election in 2024, with 33 crore (or 49%) of those voters being women. According to the SBI report, starting in 2029, the number of registered women voters (37 crore) may surpass that of registered men voters (36 crore).
The projection said that in 2047, women’s voter turnout might rise to 55% while men’s turnout might decline to 45%.
Over the past ten years, there has been an increase in the number of women involved in Indian politics.
Merely 8 crore people cast ballots in the 1951 elections. 42 crores cast ballots in the 2009 elections, with 19 crores being female. Voter turnout rose by 13.7 crores to 55 crores in 2014, with 26 crores of those voters being female. For men and women, it was 5.2x and 5.8x higher, respectively.
Voter turnout was higher among females than males in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019. Compared to 67.01% of male voters, as many as 67.18% of female voters participated in the 2019 general election.
In state assembly elections, the increase in female voter turnout is even more noticeable. Of the twenty-three major states where surveys were conducted within the last five years, eighteen of them showed higher voter turnout rates among women than among men.
Remarkably, in ten of the eighteen states where female voter turnout exceeded male voter turnout, the same government was re-elected.
Women currently make up 15% of the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Women make up, on average, 9% of the members of state legislative assemblies.
In their national legislatures, Scandinavian nations like Sweden, Norway, and South Africa have more than 45% female representation. Japan is behind India at 10%.
Ratnavali