How women got a say and voted to protect it

NEW DELHI: The changes that have swept through Bihar in the last five years have meant several things for Manisha Sharma, a 26-year-old social worker and resident of Jehanabad, a mid-sized town two-and-a-half hours south of Patna. For one, she is now a social worker and several times a week takes a train back from meetings in Patna, coming home at 10pm.She wears her gold jewellery even when out shopping alone.
Earlier this month, there was another change. She voted for the first time.
Female voter turnout rose over 10 percentage points to 54.85% during Bihar’s assembly elections, over 4% higher than the male voter turnout for the first time. And, there are more registered male than female voters. Turning out to vote was no mean feat in a state that used to be unsafe for women on most days, and often for voters, whether male or female, on election day. The vastly improved law and order situation in Bihar has given women like Sharma the confidence to do many things.
Then there are the issues. Women traditionally vote for development, especially better provision of public goods. ‘‘It’s not as if schools did not exist earlier, or water did not flow out of taps,’’ says Sharma, a mother of two, in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘‘But before elections, all that men would talk about would be who the person standing for election from Jehanabad was, what his history was, how big his house had become and what his caste was. There was nothing I could add to that discussion. Now, there’s a lot that I can say, too,’’ Sharma says.
What’s more, leaders, too, have begun talking of women’s empowerment and other terms she usually heard from social workers.
On the top of her agenda were problems that Jehanabad shares with urban and semi-urban centres across Bihar — irregular power, dependence on community handpumps, overflowing sewer lines and poor quality teaching in schools. ‘‘When I saw that these were the issues in all the newspapers, I was excited about voting,’’ she adds. ‘‘Even though the areas around us are known to be Naxal-affected, I felt safe enough to take her along this time,’’ her husband, shopowner Ramratan adds.
Female confidence has not flown only from improved personal security. In villages, women said that the Nitish Kumar government’s step of raising women’s reservation in local body elections to 50% made many more women more aware of political processes, even if reluctantly at times.
Kuntidevi Paswan became the mukhiya of her panchayat in Gaya district at her husband’s bidding when it became reserved and he couldn’t contest. While she admitted to TOI that it is her husband who does the mukhiya’s work and her contribution is thumbprint, the 40-year-old agricultural labourer says that the experience made her keen to vote for a woman in the elections.