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    Leading the way: In Bihar, women form majority in 25 of 40 LS seats

    Synopsis

    During the 2014 elections, women outnumbered men in at least 25 parliamentary constituencies and may have been responsible for the candidate’s victory.

    Battle for Bihar: Can Modi-Nitish duo trounce Gathbandhan?
    They have been turning out in huge numbers to vote in Bihar since 2010 and are often hailed as the ‘silent’ force behind chief minister Nitish Kumar’s re-election in the 2015 assembly elections. While political parties have been wooing the key women vote bank with several schemes, they have failed to give proper political representation to women who constitute nearly half of the voting population of Bihar. There are 40 lakh more female voters in Bihar this time compared to 2014.

    The BJP-led NDA has given only three tickets to women. The Congress-RJD Mahagathbandhan, that has vehemently opposed Nitish’s prohibition decision, is a tad better –– it’s given five out of 40 seats to women this time.

    With just three MPs and 28 MLAs being women out of the total 243 legislators currently, women may seem virtually non-existent in the Bihar political landscape, but their voting strength is high. There are over three crore women voters in Bihar, who form 47% of the voting population, as per the election commission’s data for the 2019 polls.

    During the 2014 elections, women outnumbered men in at least 25 parliamentary constituencies and may have been responsible for the candidate’s victory. This is the highest ratio of seats where women have outnumbered men across the country (over ten percent points). These seats include Jhanjharpur, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Khagaria and Purnia that fal l in the Mithilanchal belt of north Bihar.

    ET travelled to Jhanjharpur, Samastipur, Darbhanga and Madhubani ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and found that heavy migration, lack of employment in the floodprone region and the fact that these regions are in the foothills of the Himalayas, forced men to migrate to Delhi, Haryana and Punjab in search of jobs and agricultural labour. Voting in a caste-ridden patriarchal society was largely left to women, which explains their high numbers on the electoral lists.

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    Political strength of women
    The BJP-JDU alliance is banking heavily on the ‘silent’ support of women this time. Of the 25 seats which recorded more than 50% turnout by women, 13 were won by the BJP, four by LJP, three by RJD, two by Congress and one each by JDU, RLSP, NCP during the 2014 polls. Devesh Kumar, BJP’s state vicepresident said Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar are known to promote the interests of women. “We have schemes such as Ujjwala and Swachh Bharat at the national level and the JDU government has been womencentric in its governance, prohibition being a case in point,” he says. “Seats such as Jhanjharpur and Darbhanga (in 2014) saw a thin margin of votes between the winning BJP and the RJD, and women voters may just be the key to it,” admits a party leader who did not want to be named.

    Nitish woos women voters
    The Nitish Kumar government has, since 2005, offered many scheme like the Mukhya Mantri Cycle Yojana, Mukhya Mantri Napkin Yojana and Kanya Vikas schemes where cash incentives are given to bring up a girl child. There are also the Jeevika rural livelihood self-help groups. And for first-time female voters, jobs, safety and improvement in basic standards of living, are priorities. Around 24% of the voters in the state are in the 18-29 age group –– comprising 5.8 crore voters.

    Sintoo Kumari Jha (21) of Phulparas block in Madhubani district, a firsttime voter, plans to ride her ‘ranger’ bicycle she bought in the ninth standard from money which came to her father’s bank account as part of Cycle Yojana, to cast her vote. After that, she has to head back to work as a coordinator for three women self-help groups in the area.

    “It saves time, as I am also studying for my M.Com entrance exams,” says the commerce graduate with a smile. She narrates how her mother Kavita Devi used to walk up to the polling station with the rest of women in her neighbourhood every election, all dressed up and humming songs on the way, to cast their votes for a candidate collectively decided by the village. “I don’t need to be part of any such discussion or group, I want to work and I will vote for the party that can offers better opportunities and safety,” she says.

    Rukmani (20) of Kuccha village in Kusheshwar Ashtan block of Darbhanga district agrees and will vote for whoever provides better health facilities in her village. Married just a year back, she ensured that her husband got her an Aadhaar card and a voter ID earlier this year, so that she could open a bank account. “I have been keeping track of all government-run policies and made sure my in-laws built a toilet after I came here,” she says.

    Lalitha Devi, 30, from Jagdishpur in Birhaul block of Darbhanga district, who voted for the first time in 2014, followed her father in-law’s instruction, as did the three other women in her household. But this time, she wants to choose a government which will implement prohibition effectively. “Alcohol is still available illegally… my husband got drunk on Holi. There is no point creating a law and not implementing it,” she says.

    Role of self help groups
    Sintoo’s mother, Kavita Devi (41), plans to continue her tradition of dressing up and walking to the polling booth with the other women. But this time, she is part of a selfhelp group. So, “I won’t tell anyone whom to vote for, but will tell them how to vote.”

    A member of one of the 8-lakh-odd women’s self-help groups, set up by Jeevika, a rural poverty alleviation scheme being run by the Bihar government with World Bank’s help, Kavita Devi is a volunteer roped in by the government and election commission to encourage women to vote. The Centre’s Ajeevika Mission, a livelihood micro-financing scheme, is part of it.

    “We discuss several topics, including elections. We have been discussing how EVMs are used,” she says.

    Shaila Devi, 48, another volunteer from Jhanjharpur, says she has been answering questions from fellow group members on electoral rolls, on how to get an Aadhaar card and on EVM tampering.

    “The discussions usually end up with whom to vote for. There is a lot of awareness among women,” she says.

    Indranath Jha, a Jeevika project coordinator in Darbhanga district, says apart from providing bank loans and micro-financing options, self-help groups help mobilise women for other causes. “Most women borrow money for weddings and health treatment. They are aware and able to offer monetary support which gives them more independence and a higher status in their families that have a patriarchal order,” he explains.


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    ( Originally published on Apr 12, 2019 )
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