Gujarat polls: A story of gender discrimination

Beyond the verdict, the recent Gujarat election has the dubious distinction of having the lowest percentage of female legislators with 7.14 per cent or 13 female MLAs representing 48 per cent of voters. Gujarat is touted to be one of the most economically developed states, yet historically lacking adequate representation of women in the state assembly and in Parliament. 

The Gujarat Assembly elections in 1962, for example, had 15 female MLAs, a figure close to the number in 2017, despite an increase in the number of female voters and their visibility in all spheres. This severe lack of representation comes forth in a state where ex-CM Anandiben Patel had the highest margin of victory in the last assembly elections and Smriti Irani’s candidature as CM was being talked about. Gujarat is the home turf of PM Narendra Modi who had been a vocal proponent of women empowerment when Sonia Gandhi was the President of INC during the elections. 

Moreover, it remains a crucial issue within the complex web of Indian political history in light of the stagnancy of women in politics. Especially since our democracy is seen as a “global icon” for the growth and perceived deepening of democracy with representations of all other “disadvantaged communities” increasing manifold.

Our Constituent Assembly has often been critiqued for having less than 5 per cent women among the total 299 members. The lack of any growth for women in politics is a worrying extension of that trend — having a debilitating impact on our political and electoral health. Neighbouring countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which are considered far more patriarchal in their social structure, too, significantly outshine India with about 20 per cent of their parliaments being comprised of women as opposed to 11 per cent in India. When sex ratio is deemed a parameter to gauge social health, shouldn’t the ratio of female legislators also be considered a parameter to measure democratic health?

In light of the unrepresentative democracy we have come to espouse, a question of disillusionment also arises. There was a steep rise in the push for NOTA which captured 2 per cent of the total votes, crossing the victory margin in more than 25 constituencies. Gujarat elections in a contrarian instance saw a decrease in the voter turnout, particularly among women, whose vote-share was 8 per cent less than their male counterparts. 

The absence of women and, therefore, a lot of their issues could be a possible reason for this where dismal sex ratio, gendered division in literacy or employment avenues for women in Gujarat seldom become politically prominent questions. Is this the “Gujarat Model” we want to base our nation on, perpetuating patriarchy? The architect of our Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar, had famously said, “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”

The author is a student at Kamala Nehru College