Women’s Participation

in the Electoral Process

– a perspective

Akshay Rout
Director General
Election Commission of India
akshaykrout@gmail.com
 Democracy and Participation

 Democracy seeks to address socio-economic

challenges, issues of livelihood, social justice
and freedom through the instrument of
representation.
 People’s participation in decision making or
direct stake-holding is the underpinning idea.
 Election is starting point of democracy, if not
the same as democracy
 Need for active Participation to rule out any
silent threat to democracy.
 Global Scene

 Consistent decline in participation, more

consistently in recent years

 1945-1975 – average turnout about 77%

 1976-1990 – 74.8%

 1990-2006 – 69.7%

 India – 55-60%
 Outlook - Concerns

 Situation suggests a democracy deficit-

Representatives increasingly represent smaller
majorities – with participation declining and
contestants increasing
 Weakening of stake holding in governance through
lower participation
 Democracy might suffer slow extinction from apathy,
indifference, and undernourishment
 Challenge is: How to engage the excluded, the
disaffected, the alienated
 People must know their identity as voters and voters
must know importance of voting
 The Broad and the Narrow Focus

 Education in universal role of creating ability

and raising individual’s capacity to participate,
remove pathological conditions that induce non-
participation
 Civic Education – larger and long term
 Electoral education- ongoing process, needs
more lead time for practice and implementation
 Voter education – election time, pre-election
time
 Systematic Voters‘ Education & Electoral
Participation (SVEEP)

• Social agenda of Commission

• Development approach combines with enforcement
• Gives election management its soul
• Information + motivation + facilitation =
Participation
• Implemented in 23 General Elections (Jharkhand to
Delhi) and 4 annual Revision of Rolls
 SVEEP - Aims

To ensure that every eligible citizen is

enrolled and to bring every enrolled
elector to the polling booth voluntarily
 Addressing:
 Gaps in Voter Registration
 Low and declining turnout in polling
 Informed, ethical and inducement free voting
 Continuous electoral democracy and civic education
Institutional Architecture
 ECI
 Chief Electoral Officer
 District Election Officer/
(DMs /Collectors)
 Electoral Registration
Officer (Constituency)
 Booth level Officer
(polling station area)
• Division at ECI
• CEO to chair State Core
Committee,
• Addl/Joint CEO SVEEP
at State Hqs
• DEO/CEO(ZP) to chair
District Core Committee
• SVEEP Nodal Officer in
district for election
 Situation Analysis:
 Three major gaps:
 Gender Gap
 Urban Apathy
 Youth disconnect
 Inclusion (weaker sections and citizens in difficult
conditions)
 Identifying micro-level gaps
 Polling Stations with lower voter turnout and
reasons thereof identified
 Identification of left out sections/groups
 Targeted interventions
Process Achievements : Infrastructure

• National Framework
• Major consultations
• National Voters’ Day
• District and State Plans for elections
• Plans for Summary/Special revision
• Financial resource/Budget made available
• Training
• Awareness Observers in elections
 Process Achievements: partnerships
• Central Government Departments/organizations
• Educational Institutions
• Civil Society and Youth Organisations
• Government Media
• State Government Departments with community reach
• Engagement of Campus Ambassadors
• New access points like banks, post offices, hospitals etc
• Icons – national and regional
 Formal Partners
 MoU with UNDP for various programmes
including Voter education
 MoU with National Literacy Mission Authority
of India for electoral literacy in rural areas
 Prominent media houses and CSOs at national
and state levels. Framework of Engagement
also for corporates.
 SVEEP Summary Scores

• Ownership

• Institutionalization

• Established partnerships

• Momentum and sustainability

• Turnout and registration figures

Participation Surge

2009-2013
 Comparative Voter Turnout
(Assembly Elections 2009-11)
90
Previous AE

85.52
85.41

84.46
80

81.67
Latest AE

78.01
76.05
75.72

74.92
70

72.38

70.82
60

57.03
56.96
50
52.65
45.85

40
30
20
10
0
Assam Bihar Jharkhand Kerala Tamil NaduPuducherry West
Bengal
 Comparative Voter Turnout
(Assembly Elections 2012)

90 AE 2007
80 AE 2012
81.73 78.57
70

75.02
73.51

71.61
72.02
70.05

60 67.22

63.96
59.77

50 59.4

45.96
40
30
20
10
0
Goa Gujarat Himachal Punjab Uttarakhand Uttar Pradesh
Pradesh
 Comparative Voter Turnout
(Assembly Elections 2013)
95
AE 2008
90

91.82
91.22
90.57
AE 2013
85

86.19
80

81.29
80.02
75
77

75.2
70 72.52
71.45
70.51

69.28

65

66.49

65.13
64.68

60

57.58
55
50
Women’s Case
 Facts
 National Gender Ratio – 933*

 Rural – 946*

 Urban – 900*

 This adverse gender ratio is reflected further in

registration: under-enrolment of women;
 In voting, the gap is widened further with the
lesser percentage of women turning up.
* Census 2011
Women participation in Lok Sabha
Elections
 Female focus by ECI

 Gender gap in Electoral Roll is specifically

monitored and all demand and supply side
measures are being taken.
 Women specific education tools are being
developed
 Women specific communication tools are used

 Female facilitation in polling stations

Female focused Interventions
 Partnership with National Rural literacy Mission to
spread electoral literacy among rural women
 ECI Campus Ambassadors being appointed in
Colleges/Universities will be 50% or more from
among girls
 Anganwadi , ASHA and other female field level
workers involved in big way.
 Out of the four national Icons 2 are women
 Outcome -1

 Focus on women has yielded results and 16 of

the last 23 Assembly elections since late 2009,
saw higher women turnout percentage than
men.
 This includes the likes of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
and Rajasthan, which have some of the
traditionally patriarchal societies.
Comparative Male/Female Turnout
(for Assembly Elections in 2009-11)
Comparative Male/Female Turnout
(for Assembly Elections in 2012)
Comparative Female Turnout
(for Assembly Elections in 2013)
 Outcome- II

 Turnout percentage of women rose substantially

over previous election

 Uttar Pradesh - increase of 18%

 Rajasthan - 10%,

 Goa -14%

 Uttarakhand, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh

- around 8-9% increase

Comparative increase in
Male/Female turnout
 Persisting Challenges
(enrolment)

 Gender ratio on Rolls is lagging behind gender

ratio in census by more than 10 points in 15
States
 Of these gender gap is more than 50 points in
6 states
 Gap between census and electoral roll gender
ratio vary by more than 90 points in Uttar
Pradesh
 Challenges
(turnout)
 Gender gap in turnout in LS 2009 was more than
5% in 9 states viz Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat,
J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan,
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh with Madhya
Pradesh leading with a gap of more than 13%,
J&K with 12% and Gujarat having a gap of
around 9%
 In Assembly Elections, the gender gap is
minimised in most states post 2009
 Expectations from Consultation
 Identify ways by which the Ministries/ Departments/organisations can
partner with the Commission at national and at State level
 Integrating women’s electoral participation/voters’ education with
various national programmes and outreach programmes of the
departments
 Strengthen the collaboration with CSOs in the field of registration also
for voting especially at State and district level
 Greater and sustained contribution from private media in the run up
to the Lok Sabha elections
 Concrete commitment by Public Sector and Corporate Sector to this
participation agenda as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility
thanks