Indian women are for the first time in India’s democratic history becoming a powerful political force. It’s about time for a demographic that represent 9% of the entire world’s population.
Since India became a democracy in 1947, election turnout among women always fell far below the turnout of men. But that trend is changing. And now more women than men might vote by the end of the country’s massive Lok Sabha elections, a month-long process to elect India’s House of Representatives.
Many women are still missing from the voter rolls . This is largely due to lingering disenfranchisement and deliberate voter suppression. It’s possible that a targeted voting advocacy campaign by the Indian Election Commission, better access to education, and general emancipation have helped empower more women to vote.
But really it’s the rise of social media and, in particular, WhatsApp.
Shaili Chopra, the founder of SheThePeople.TV and author told Quartz that WhatsApp has transformed political awareness and participation among women.
“The power of digital is pretty much gender agnostic when it comes to the opportunity to speak up or learn,” Chopra said. A decade ago, she added, voting was often a one-day conversation in the life of a woman.
Not anymore.
Today, the conversation has changed dramatically. Chopra said women are in WhatsApp groups with hundreds of members who all discuss political preferences.
“Things have moved from me walking to the neighbor to have a conversation to having the conversation coming at me at a rate that never existed before,” she said. These conversation make women feel more involved, and then more inclined to participate when the time to vote comes around, she added.
Social media platforms also help women express themselves in a way they might not be able to at home, where traditional roles still often hold sway. As a result, many Indian women—who were once largely unengaged in politics—are now part of a collective “uprising of the female voter in India,” Chopra said.
This is especially true in rural India, according to Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala, who together wrote The Verdict, a book on India’s election. The turnout of women in villages is 6% higher than that of their urban counterparts. Rural Indian women, in fact, just might be the largest voting demographic in the country this time around.
Today, the conversation has changed dramatically. Chopra said women are in WhatsApp groups with hundreds of members who all discuss political preferences.
“Things have moved from me walking to the neighbor to have a conversation to having the conversation coming at me at a rate that never existed before,” she said. These conversation make women feel more involved, and then more inclined to participate when the time to vote comes around, she added.
Social media platforms also help women express themselves in a way they might not be able to at home, where traditional roles still often hold sway. As a result, many Indian women—who were once largely unengaged in politics—are now part of a collective “uprising of the female voter in India,” Chopra said.
This is especially true in rural India, according to Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala, who together wrote The Verdict, a book on India’s election. The turnout of women in villages is 6% higher than that of their urban counterparts. Rural Indian women, in fact, just might be the largest voting demographic in the country this time around.
“I am not totally convinced that political parties know what women want,” Milan said. “We tend to be very patriarchal in the way that we talk about women’s policies.”
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from Sci & Tech – Click Ittefaq http://bit.ly/2HpjmM2
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