{"id":39400,"date":"2025-03-19T19:34:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=39400"},"modified":"2025-03-19T19:34:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:04:56","slug":"india-womens-political-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-03-2025\/india-womens-political-participation","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Political Participation in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/Society<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rajeshwari Deshpande\u2019s study, \u2018Shaping of the Woman Constituency in Indian Elections: Evidence from the NES Data\u2019 analyses political participation of women in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Major Highlights of the Study<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Voting Behavior &amp; Agency: <\/strong>Women&#8217;s voting patterns and choices are often overlooked, with political parties treating them as a homogeneous group and not considering factors like caste, class, and religion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Welfare Programs: <\/strong>Political parties often frame women as passive beneficiaries of welfare programs like Ujjwala and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, reinforcing a dependent image.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Voting vs Political Power: <\/strong>Despite increased turnout, women&#8217;s political participation remains limited beyond voting.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Women lag behind men in other forms of political participation like rallies, campaigns, and policy advocacy, facing social and structural barriers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Male Migration Impact: <\/strong>In states with large-scale male migration, women\u2019s voter turnout has increased, especially in socially and economically \u2018backward\u2019 areas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>State-Specific Voting Patterns: <\/strong>In states with strong regional parties (e.g., Tamil Nadu, Kerala), women\u2019s preferences align more with regional movements rather than national gender-based trends.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Women\u2019s Political Participation in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Unlike many countries where the gender gap in political participation began narrowing in the 1990s, <strong>India saw this shift only in the 2010s.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In the 2019 general elections,<\/strong> female voter turnout slightly exceeded male voter turnout, with women making up<strong> 49.5% of the electorate<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, <\/strong>women had a slightly higher voting percentage (65.8%) compared to men (65.6%).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Women, especially in rural areas, are becoming <strong>more politically conscious, active, and involved in village-level decision-making.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Global Goals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Women&#8217;s equal participation and leadership in politics are crucial for achieving the <strong>Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>SDG 5 <\/strong>focuses on gender equality and women&#8217;s empowerment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Balanced political participation and power-sharing <\/strong>between women and men in decision-making is a key target set in the <strong>Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Factor\u2019s Influencing Women\u2019s Political Participation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Socio-Cultural Norms:<\/strong> Traditional gender roles and cultural expectations often limit women\u2019s public and political involvement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Education and Literacy: <\/strong>Higher literacy rates and education levels empower women to participate more actively in politics.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic Independence: <\/strong>Women\u2019s workforce participation and economic independence can boost their political agency.`<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Caste, Class, and Religion: <\/strong>Women\u2019s political choices are shaped by their caste, class, and religious identities, influencing their voting behavior and party affiliations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Political Party Strategies:<\/strong> The outreach and engagement of political parties with women through targeted policies or welfare schemes impact their participation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social Movements:<\/strong> Women\u2019s involvement in social movements and activism can strengthen their engagement in formal politics.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Regional and State-Specific Factors: <\/strong>Regional political contexts, including the strength of local parties and issues specific to states, can shape women\u2019s political behavior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXfQff2C7F5Q1z1v5pfoMebTuOA2o2L2b601SbXIxGVXLQzXYUCuRrlp3KVb4MCJAiHW7MjkuEL5Fx2RVhxEqgA2EoFTqZlnuId9duXsh9MZGszuFTima7JezBU11OydsddIv52l?key=nNE6T65CEcDFrR5xPigoiLvF\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The decentralization of governance which is taking place for the last two decades has increased the importance of measuring participation of women in decision making.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Proper gender budgeting has already been worked out for inclusive growth of women.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>With more responsive data on women participation, better gender budget initiatives aim to move the country towards a gender equal society.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/what-factors-influence-womens-political-participation\/article69345520.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rajeshwari Deshpande\u2019s study, \u2018Shaping of the Woman Constituency in Indian Elections: Evidence from the NES Data\u2019 analyses political participation of women in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39401,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39400\/revisions\/39401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}