Rekha Chowdhary
In the week that is celebrated as ‘Women’s Week’, it would be pertinent to raise the question of women in electoral politics of J&K. Where are women located in this politics? An analysis of the way power politics operates here, will clearly show a huge gap between men and women. Whether as members of the political parties, or as contestants, as political leaders or as legislators. All these spaces clearly are dominated by men with women having at best a symbolic role. Visibility of women is quite impressive at the lower levels of politics – whether it is voting or campaigning, participating in rallies etc. However, as one nears the positions of power, women are missed.

Election Watch

Statistically, women seem to be doing well as voters and over the years their turnout in the electoral politics is getting comparable to that of men. In 1972, compared to around 70 percent male voter turnout, it was only around 54 percent female voter turnout. By 2008, the difference between the male and female voter turnout was quite much reduced and women’s voter turnout was only 5percent less than that of men. But by 2014 not only this gap was gone, but more women than men voted – compared to 64.85 percent men casting their votes in this election the percentage of women voter turnout was 66.27 percent.
Even while women have started voting in larger number, it is difficult to say if this has added quality to their vote and they are using their voting power for securing their gender interests. Women have on the whole failed to become a significant political constituency in J&K. They are not seen to be voting en block as women and are not seen as a political force significant enough to be wooed by political parties.
This positive statistics of women’s participation at the level of voting is not replicated at levels beyond voting. Despite the fact that every political party has a women’s wing with a woman leader at the top, however, these wings fail to become effective channels for women’s participation and further growth in the party. The role of these wings is mainly related to campaigning, participating in rallies, or making their presence felt around women-related issues. But in terms of structure of party and its decision making process, the women’s wings don’t contribute much. Even for decisions related to women’s issues, these wings are not much effective. Within the party structures, women remain marginalised – granted secondary status. Not many women get involved in the organisational structure of the party and not many get chance to contest elections. Situation does not change even when a party is headed by a woman. NC had a woman patron for a long time and PDP has been led by Mehbooba Mufti. One can’t say for sure that their presence however could be instrumental in bringing more women to the party or placing them in position of power. Party politics, on the whole remains dominated by men.
In terms of Assembly or Parliamentary elections – the situation related to women is quite dismal. Not many women contest elections and even fewer women are able to win elections and hold legislative membership. If we look at the data of female candidates in the Assembly elections, we come to conclude that male candidates form 95percent or more of the total number of candidates. The 2008 Assembly election, so far has had the highest proportion of female candidates – 4.94percent. Of the 1354 candidates who contested this election, 1287 were men and only 67 of the candidates were women. Situation has been much worse in some of other elections – there were only 4 women candidates contesting Assembly election in 1977 forming a less than one percent of total candidates. During 1996 Assembly election, of the total 1027 contestants, only 15 were women (1.46percent). Even during the 2014 Assembly election, 97percent of the candidates contesting election were men. Of the 831 candidates in fray, only 28 were women. One can imagine the electoral arena – where the main participants are men. Women are at the margins and still to enter the central space.
The lower number of female candidates is clearly linked with the absence of winnable candidates within the parties. And for that reason, parties are reluctant to field female candidates. But for this lack of winnability, the parties themselves are responsible. Even when there are relatively larger number of active women at the lower levels of the organisation, they fail to rise above to the higher levels of the party. They don’t find enough space within the party to develop the potentials of being effective leaders.
If the situation of women in contesting Assembly election is depressing, what is worse is their representation in the Assembly. With very few women winning the elections, the successive Assemblies have remained mainly comprised of men. The largest number of women MLAs in any Assembly was 4 in 1977. The average number of women who get elected as MLAs – is however 02. 2008 Assembly election was also an exception when three women MLAs could make it. While no woman could be elected during 1983 Assembly election, one woman could be elected during 1977 and 1987 Assembly elections. 1996, 2002 and 2014 – each of these election returned two women MLAs.
The winnability record of women candidates shows that the women who contest through party ticket have greater chances of winning as compared to independent candidates. A large number of women candidates therefore end up forfeiting their deposits. 56 out of 67 and 25 out of female candidates during the 2008 and 2014 Assembly elections forfeited their deposits.
Also paradoxical is the picture of women’s contest and representation in the Parliamentary elections. To begin with the number of female candidates contesting the parliamentary elections is much more smaller as compared to that of those contesting Assembly elections. Even so one can see that some women could make it to the Parliament. Two women were elected from J&K during 1977 LokSabha election, of these one was Parvati Devi, the Queen Mother of Ladakh and the other was Begum Akbar Jahan Abdullah. The latter could be elected as MP again in 1984. Mehbooba Mufti got elected as MP, in 2004 and later in 2014. One can clearly see that it is the elite women and those coming from the political families with a solid party at the back who could be represented at the highest level.
Poor representation of women in electoral politics makes a clear case for reservation of seats in the Assembly and Parliament. With women almost being absent – the power politics continues to remain a domain of men in J&K. Women continue to be the outsiders in the decision making processes – be these within the parties, or the legislature of the government.
One can therefore see justification for the Reservation Act of 2023 that seeks to reserve one third seats in the Assembly and LokSabha to women. The data of women’s share in the electoral politics has clearly shown that without reservation, women can’t make it to the legislatures. And once reservation is granted, women will start making a mark in the decision making positions both within the party as well as within the Government. Parties will be forced to make a space for women within the organisational structure and groom them for electoral politics. And with larger representation of women within the legislatures, they will have greater chance to be part of the Government. As of now, there has been a very nominal presence of women in the successive State Government. With one or two women being there holding a ministerial position – the share of women in Governmental decision making is very small.
(Feedback welcome at rekchowdhary@gmail.com)

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