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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Women have better chances to win polls, study finds -Pradeep Thakur

Women have better chances to win polls, study finds -Pradeep Thakur

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published Published on Nov 14, 2013   modified Modified on Nov 14, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: The success rate of women candidates in Lok Sabha elections has been coming down sharply over the years as more and more of them contest, but it still remains much higher than their male counterparts.

Women

The finding is part of an analysis by the Central Statistical Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation that has studied the pattern from the second general elections in 1957 to the last held in 2009.

Though the total number of women contestants in 1957 was quite low at 45, compared to 2009 when 556 were in the fray, the success rate remained nearly twice as much as that of males. During this period, the total number of Lok Sabha seats has also gone up from 494 in 1957 to 543 at present.

In the three general elections - between 1957 and 1967 - the winning percentage of women candidates was between 45% and 60%. During the same period, the winning percentage of male candidates was 21% to 31% (see box).

The trend has not reversed much in the last three general elections between 1999 and 2009 during which 45-59 women were elected to the lower House of Parliament. Their winning percentage was 11%-18% during this period while that for male candidates were between 6% and 10%.

Sadly, despite stalwarts like late Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi being at the helm of affairs of the ruling party and ensuring successive victories, this has not significantly improved the representation of women in Parliament.

On the contrary, when late Indira Gandhi, heading a splinter Congress in 1971, defeated syndicate stalwart Morarji Desai and came back to power with a thumping majority of 352 seats the success rate of women candidates dipped to 24% from 45% in the previous elections. As against 67 women candidates who contested in 1967, out of which 30 were elected with a success rate of 45%, only 21 women were elected to LS in 1971 out of the 86 who contested at a winning percentage of 24%.

The winning percentage of women candidates went up to 27% when the Janata Party came to power in 1977 after Emergency was lifted. But the success rate of women candidates again came down to 24% in 1980, when Indira returned to power.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who steered the grand old party to two successive wins in 2004 and 2009, did not do much better than her mother-in-law when it came to improving the winnability of women candidates as a -though she can hardly be held responsible for the dwindling prospects of the fair sex with many regional satraps and Lohia followers opposed to reservation for women in Parliament.

In the 2004 general elections, 355 women contested on different platforms but only 45 were elected at a winning percentage of 13%. This further declined in 2009 with 556 women in the fray but only 59 elected for a winning percentage of 11%. Compared to this, during the two previous elections in 1998 and 1999, 43 out of 274 and 52 out of 296 women, respectively, were elected to the LS with a winning percentage of 16%-18%.


The Times of India, 14 November, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Women-have-better-chances-to-win-polls-study-finds/articleshow/25725433.cms


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