Women's Day: Data shows importance of women voters in 2019 polls

A narrowing gender-gap in voter turnout illustrates the important role women, as a constituency, will play in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections were a high point for female voter participation, with a historic narrowing of the gender-gap in voter turnout becoming evident. The male voter turnout at 67.09 per cent stood at just 1.79 percentage points above the female voter turnout at 65.30 per cent. This was the narrowest difference recorded between the two figures till date for general elections since 1967 (see table below).
On International Women's Day 2019, it would be pertinent to look at data and statistics provided by the Election Commission of India for past general elections to see how women voters have fared and their increasing influence in Indian politics.
Some key observations can be made from the above figures. In 2004, the difference between male and female voter turnout stood at 8.36 percentage points. In 2009, it stood at 4.42 percentage points. Finally, in 2014, it stood at 1.79 percentage points.
Compare this to the trend in past elections. In the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, the female voter turnout stood behind the male turnout by 11.25 percentage points -- the highest margin of difference recorded till date for any general election for which such data is available. From then till the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the difference remained considerable, with the exception of the election that followed the then prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984. Read More

Article Source -> Business Standard