Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Sept 7: Presenting a grim picture of gender disparity and the lack of women’s participation, only 13 female candidates out of over 327 are contesting across 31 Assembly constituencies in Kashmir, set to go to the polls in Phase I and Phase II starting on September 18.
A total of 327 nomination papers were accepted. Of them 314 are male, while 13 are women, accounting for only 3.97 percent of the total candidates in the fray for both phases.
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For Phase I, which will see 16 Assembly constituencies in Kashmir going to the polls on September 18, there are 164 candidates in the fray, of which 159 are male and only 5 are female, accounting for 3.03 percent of the total.
Of these five women candidates, three are running as Independents, including Daisy Raina, a Kashmiri Pandit from Rajpora constituency, which has a total of 10 candidates; Afrooza Banu from Kulgam, which also has 10 candidates; and Gulshan Akhtar from Anantnag West, which has 9 candidates contesting Assembly polls.
Two out of the five belong to prominent parties: National Conference’s Sakina Yatoo from DH Pora, which has a total of 6 candidates in fray, and PDP’s Iltija Mufti contesting from Srigufwara-Bijbehara, which has only 3 candidates contesting polls.
For Phase II Assembly polls —scheduled to be held on September 25, with the scrutiny of papers already completed—15 Assembly constituencies in Kashmir will go to the polls. There are 164 candidates, of which 155 are male and 8 are female, accounting for 4.84 percent of the total.
These women candidates represent 6 constituencies, including Hazratbal, Habba Kadal, Lal Chowk, Eidgah, Budgam and Chadoora. Of the 8 women, 4 are running as Independents, while the rest belong to different political parties.
The Independents include Khatija Zareen from Lal Chowk constituency, which has a total of 11 candidates in the race; Fancy Ashraf from Eidgah segment, with 15 candidates in fray; Bisma Nabi from Budgam, with 11 candidates; and Nilofar Sajjad Gandru from Chadoora, which has 7 candidates.
The party-affiliated women candidates include PDP’s Asiya Naqash from Hazratbal, which has 13 candidates in the race; NC’s Shamima Firdous, and National Loktantrik Party’s Rubina Akhtar from Habba Kadal, which has 17 candidates—the highest among all 31 constituencies—in fray.
Notably, the nomination papers of two women from Habba Kadal—Santosh Labroo of the J&K All Alliance Democratic Party and Nighat Gul, an Independent—were rejected, as were those of Nelofer Sajjad from Pulwama.
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