The undersigned national women’s organisations are deeply distressed that millions of women in our country have not been registered to vote even though they are aged over 18 years. A joint memorandum regarding this matter has been submitted to the Chief Election Commissioner.
The 2011 census suggests that by 2019 the total population of women above 18 years will be 97.2 per cent of the total men’s population. But the Election Commission data for 2019 shows that women voters are only 92.7 per cent of the male voters indicating a 4.5 per cent shortfall of women voters. This 4.5 per cent translates into a staggering 21 million women who will be denied their right to vote just because their names are not registered in the voters’ lists.
Twenty-one million missing women voters is equivalent to every single woman not being allowed to vote in any one of the states of Jharkhand or Haryana or Telangana or Kerala or Chhattisgarh! Twenty-one million translates into 38,000 missing women voters in every constituency in India!
The largest number of unregistered women are in Uttar Pradesh (6.8 million), Maharashtra (2.3 million) and Rajasthan (1.2 million). This means that on an average 85,000 women voters will not be allowed to vote in every single constituency in Uttar Pradesh!
This disenfranchisement of women voters is an assault on their democratic right as citizens of the country. This is unacceptable and we appeal to the Election Commission to take immediate steps to rectify this injustice.
We sincerely hope that the Election Commission will pay attention to this matter on an urgent basis.
All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) - Malini Bhattacharya, Mariam Dhawale
All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) - Kavita Krishnan
National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) - Annie Raja
All India Dalit MahilaAdhikarManch - VimalThorat
Guild of Service (GoS) - MohiniGiri
Joint Women’s Programme (JWP) - Jyotsna Chatterjee
War Widows’ Association (WWA) - MohiniGiri
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) - VimalThorat
