KOLKATA:
Women voters
in Bengal are now 49% of the state’s 7.2 crore electorate, according to the final list published by the
Election Commission on Friday.
The gender ratio among voters has improved from 956 in 2020 to 961, the highest ever recorded in Bengal. The final voter list also indicated inclusion of migrant workers and a drop among teenagers registering themselves as voters.
In Tamil Nadu,
Kerala and
Andhra Pradesh, women voters are over 50% of the electorate. EC sources pointed out that among states, participation of women voters is very high in Bengal. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the participation rate of women in the state was as high as 81.7%, which is the best among major states in the country. Only smaller states such as
Tripura
and Nagaland and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep have better participation of women than Bengal.
Among the 7.2 crore voters, the number of men is 3.7 crore and the number of women 3.5 crore. There are 1,430 third gender voters and 1,12,642 service electorate in the state. The final list shows that there has been an addition of 20.4 lakh voters, which has led to an increase of 2% compared to the draft roll published in November 2020. Sources indicated the fresh inclusion was owing to enlisting of migrant voters.
Despite an increase in the number of women voters, there has been a substantial dip in the number of first-timers in the 18-19 years age group. In March 2020, there was a 3.1% increase in the number of teen voters; in 2021, it is down to 2.6%. This is for the first time in three years that there has been a decline in the number of teen voters.
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