THE WOMEN FACTOR-HOW JJP’s HARI CHUNARI CHAUPAL WILL BE A GAME CHANGER

THE WOMEN FACTOR-HOW JJP’s HARI CHUNARI CHAUPAL WILL BE A GAME CHANGER

The most heartening sight around the Haryana before General & assembly election is large number of women participation in Hari chunari chaupal organized by Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) workers and addressed by Smt. Naina Chautala, MLA. Long queues and participation in large number signals women eagerness to participate in dethroning current political set up.

Why women will decide who will rule:

Current electoral statistics can surprise us all & of course pose a major reason of worry for current political set up. In 1962, the turnout of women was only 47 percent (of the total female electorate), yet by 2014, it had shot up to 66 percent-up by nearly 19 percentage points. On the other hand, men’s turnout grew by only 5 percent over the same period.  In 1962, women’s turnout was 15 per cent lower than men’s turnout; but by2014 women’s turnout had almost reached parity with men, short by only 1.5 per cent. This represents a remarkable, turnaround over the last half-century.

In fact, for the first time in India’s electoral history, women’s turnout was higher than that of men in the state assembly elections of 2017-18 held in various states. This speaks of social churn, and it is not surprising that today political parties focus much more on women’s issues during their campaign than ever before.  

As per the survey published in outlook, whenever women was questioned on whether they voted for the party that their husbands told them to vote for, the women’s responses were predominantly to laugh at, and to treat the question with derision. In a survey by CSDS for the 2014 lok sabha elections, 70 percent of women voters said they did not consult their husbands on who to vote for. Women voters who make up their own mind could now are at least as high as 80 per cent.

It is clear that in India, women are a distinct and independent ‘votebank’ on which political parties have already began to focus in order to win elections.  

Recent studies suggest that women voters had impact on political parties in different ways. For instance, the BJP support amongst women has tended to be lower than among men. In the last lok sabha elections of 2014, NDA had a lead over UPA of 19 per cent amongst men and a much smaller lead of 9 per cent amongst women. To realize how important the male vote is to the NDA: if no women, only men had voted in the 2014Lok sabha elections, the NDA would have won by an enormous landslide with 376 votes. However, if no men, only women had voted, the NDA would have won 265 seats-which would have been 7 seats short of the majority mark

Source: Outlook

      

2011 census, suggests that by 2019, the total population of women in India will be 97.2 per cent of total men’s population.  Consequently, it is only to be expected that the total electorate of women voters should be the same percentage of the total male electorate-or at least very close to this figure. However, the election commission data for 2019 states that women voters are only 92.7 per cent of male voters.

Haryana is witnessing large number of women participation in electoral process. Gone are the days when women were confined under veil system and considered as one who manages only house & kitchen.  Hari chunari chaupal is one platform where women find their voice. Recent announcement by JJP leadership regarding provision of old age pension for all women above 55 years and that too delivered at their home without bureaucratic hurdles has gone down well among women masses.

Participation in such large numbers in chaupals speaks about their conviction in Chautala’s leadership & will certainly reflect in upcoming polls. Not to forget what “Chai pe charcha” resulted in 2014 for BJP, similarly chunari chaupal seems all potent to turn JJP fortunes in the same manner.  

Author is a practising advocate in Supreme court & Delhi High court

Prateek Som

Advocate

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