Female participation in voting improved over last 50 years

As per an analysis of 50 years of Election Commission data for the Assembly elections held between 1962 and 2012 in 16 major States, there has been a significant improvement in the sex ratio of the electorate as compared to early years. The analysis was done by Mudit Kapoor and Shamika Ravi, Assistant Professors at the Indian School ofBusiness, Hyderabad.

The analysis points that:

• Between 1962 and 2012 in 16 major States the sex ratio of voters — the number of women voters for every 1,000 men voters — increased from 715 in the 1960s to 883 in the 2000s.
• Important to note that this improvement did not come about because more women registered to vote than men but because more women actively voted.
• The sex ratio of electors, all those on the roll, did not improve over time; in fact, it worsened in some States. But female voter turnouts enhanced faster than male, leading to an improvement in the overall sex ratio of voters.
• Kerala remains the State with the most equitable gender ratio among voters, throughout the last 50 years.
• The improvement has been noticed in backward ones also.
• Madhya Pradesh and Odisha are the most improved backward States, going from 558 and 572 women voters for every 1,000 male voters in the 1960s to 804 and 866 in the 2000s.
• Himachal Pradesh has jtaken a giant leap as it has gone transformed from being one of the States with the worst sex ratio to the second best.
• Uttar Pradesh has notoriously replaced Bihar to become the new worst state in 2000s.
• Bihar, with the most adverse voter sex ratio in the 1960s, is the second worst State in the 2000s.