Women in Rajasthan might hold key to who ascends political throne
- Arijit Bose
- Nov 9, 2018
- 2 min read
Courtesy – Stanford University
As Rajasthan goes to vote in weeks from now, all eyes are on which party the women of the state will vote for. Despite repeated claims by the BJP and Congress, the woman of the state are yet to get their due.
In a state where out of a total 4.74 crore voters, 2.77 crore are women, each party is now trying to woo the women of the state.
In past three elections on an average — 2003, 2008 and 2013 — BJP gave 13% tickets to women, while Congress gave tickets to 11%.
In two decades the number of women voters has steadily been on the rise. If 723 women cast their vote per thousand men in 1972, the number has gone up to 899 in 2013. Their presence in assembly across parties is a dismal 28 which is 14 per cent of total seats.
Both Congress President, Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje in most election rallies have been vociferous about greater women representation. Raje had recently said women will play a decisive role in the semi final ahead of 2019, claiming the community will “bring the BJP back to power”, where voting happens on December 7.
Courtesy- Wikimedia Commons
Reportedly the BJP has amended party constitution to give 33% reservation to women in organization. Irrespective of this their representation in cells and wings of party remains below 33%.
Attempting to place women at the centre of the social paradigm, BJP has laid stress on including women for election strategy. Recently organized Mahila Sammelans and Nari Shakti Sammelans cutting across the Vidhan Sabha to the booth level are a step in that direction.
Courtesy – moneycontrol.com / PTI
Speaking of the Congress, of 39 Congress districts, only two have women presidents. Furthermore of 400 blocks in 200 assembly constituencies of Rajasthan, Congress has appointed only six women chiefs.
In the runup to the big battle for Rajasthan, Congress has received nearly 3,000 resumes in three months for the polls. Only 110 of them are women aspirants.
Both major national players in the state have tried their best to lure the women voter by way of a bevy of schemes. Rajshree Yojna and Bhamashah Yojna remain the most well recorded schemes of the government in the state.
There are others too like E-Sakhi a digital literacy programme for women and sanitary napkins for menstrual hygiene.
Even the Congress has overtime used schemes like Janani Shishu Suraksha Yatra, Grant for weddings of daughters of BPL women, Shubhlakshmi Yojana for safe birth of girl child, waiver in interest to women entrepreneurs and populist measures like free bus travel for women on Raksha Bandhan.
All these schemes cater to birth, health, education, transport and financial needs of women.
While political rhetoric seems to suggest a deep rooted concern of parties for women, the schemes aside whether women of the state actually benefit will be the ultimate measure for development.
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