Transcript Democracy and Participation - Election Commission of India

Women’s Participation
in the Electoral Process
– a perspective
Akshay Rout
Director General
Election Commission of India
[email protected]
Democracy and Participation
 Democracy seeks to address socio-economic
challenges, issues of livelihood, social justice
and freedom through the instrument of
representation.
 People’s participation in decision making or
direct stake-holding is the underpinning idea.
 Election is starting point of democracy, if not
the same as democracy
 Need for active Participation to rule out any
silent threat to democracy.
Global Scene

Consistent
decline
in
participation,
consistently in recent years

1945-1975 – average turnout about 77%

1976-1990 – 74.8%

1990-2006 – 69.7%

India – 55-60%
more
Outlook - Concerns





Situation
suggests
a
democracy
deficitRepresentatives increasingly represent smaller
majorities – with participation declining and
contestants increasing
Weakening of stake holding in governance through
lower participation
Democracy might suffer slow extinction from apathy,
indifference, and undernourishment
Challenge is: How to engage the excluded, the
disaffected, the alienated
People must know their identity as voters and voters
must know importance of voting
The Broad and the Narrow Focus
 Education in universal role of creating ability
and raising individual’s capacity to participate,
remove pathological conditions that induce nonparticipation
 Civic Education – larger and long term
 Electoral education- ongoing process, needs
more lead time for practice and implementation
 Voter education – election time, pre-election
time
Systematic Voters‘ Education & Electoral
Participation (SVEEP)
• Social agenda of Commission
• Development approach combines with enforcement
• Gives election management its soul
• Information
+
motivation
+
facilitation
=
Participation
• Implemented in 23 General Elections (Jharkhand to
Delhi) and 4 annual Revision of Rolls
SVEEP - Aims
To ensure that every eligible citizen is
enrolled
and to bring every enrolled
elector to the polling booth voluntarily
 Addressing:
 Gaps in Voter Registration
 Low and declining turnout in polling
 Informed, ethical and inducement free voting
 Continuous electoral democracy and civic education
Institutional Architecture
 ECI
 Chief Electoral Officer
 District Election Officer/
(DMs /Collectors)
 Electoral Registration
Officer (Constituency)
 Booth level Officer
(polling station area)
• Division at ECI
• CEO to chair State Core
Committee,
• Addl/Joint CEO SVEEP
at State Hqs
• DEO/CEO(ZP) to chair
District Core Committee
• SVEEP Nodal Officer in
district for election
Situation Analysis:
 Three major gaps:
 Gender Gap
 Urban Apathy
 Youth disconnect
 Inclusion (weaker sections and citizens in difficult
conditions)
 Identifying micro-level gaps
 Polling Stations with lower voter turnout and
reasons thereof identified
 Identification of left out sections/groups
 Targeted interventions
Process Achievements : Infrastructure
•
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•
•
•
•
•
•
National Framework
Major consultations
National Voters’ Day
District and State Plans for elections
Plans for Summary/Special revision
Financial resource/Budget made available
Training
Awareness Observers in elections
Process Achievements: partnerships
• Central Government Departments/organizations
• Educational Institutions
• Civil Society and Youth Organisations
• Government Media
• State Government Departments with community reach
• Engagement of Campus Ambassadors
• New access points like banks, post offices, hospitals etc
• Icons – national and regional
Formal Partners
 MoU
with UNDP for various programmes
including Voter education
 MoU with National Literacy Mission Authority
of India for electoral literacy in rural areas
 Prominent media houses and CSOs at national
and state levels. Framework of Engagement
also for corporates.
SVEEP Summary Scores
• Ownership
• Institutionalization
• Established partnerships
• Momentum and sustainability
• Turnout and registration figures
Participation Surge
2009-2013
Comparative Voter Turnout
(Assembly Elections 2009-11)
45.85
52.65
50
40
30
81.67
84.46
72.38
74.92
60
Latest AE
57.03
56.96
70
75.72
76.05
80
70.82
78.01
Previous AE
85.41
85.52
90
20
10
0
Assam
Bihar
Jharkhand
Kerala
Tamil NaduPuducherry
West
Bengal
Comparative Voter Turnout
(Assembly Elections 2012)
AE 2007
78.57
67.22
59.4
45.96
75.02
73.51
63.96
59.77
72.02
71.61
AE 2012
81.73
70.05
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Goa
Gujarat
Himachal
Pradesh
Punjab
Uttarakhand Uttar Pradesh
Comparative Voter Turnout
(Assembly Elections 2013)
55
50
75.2
69.28
72.52
60
64.68
71.45
65
70.51
70
77
75
80.02
81.29
80
66.49
85
86.19
90.57
AE 2013
91.22
91.82
AE 2008
90
57.58
65.13
95
Women’s Case
Facts
 National Gender Ratio – 933*
 Rural – 946*
 Urban – 900*
 This adverse gender ratio is reflected further in
registration: under-enrolment of women;
 In voting, the gap is widened further with the
lesser percentage of women turning up.
* Census 2011
Women participation in Lok Sabha
Elections
Female focus by ECI
 Gender gap in Electoral Roll is specifically
monitored and all demand and supply side
measures are being taken.
 Women specific education tools are being
developed
 Women specific communication tools are used
 Female facilitation in polling stations
Female focused Interventions
 Partnership with National Rural literacy Mission to
spread electoral literacy among rural women
 ECI Campus Ambassadors being appointed in
Colleges/Universities will be 50% or more from
among girls
 Anganwadi , ASHA and other female field level
workers involved in big way.
 Out of the four national Icons 2 are women
Outcome -1
 Focus on women has yielded results and 16 of
the last 23 Assembly elections since late 2009,
saw higher women turnout percentage than
men.
 This includes the likes of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
and Rajasthan, which have some of the
traditionally patriarchal societies.
Comparative Male/Female Turnout
(for Assembly Elections in 2009-11)
Comparative Male/Female Turnout
(for Assembly Elections in 2012)
Comparative Female Turnout
(for Assembly Elections in 2013)
Outcome- II
 Turnout percentage of women rose substantially
over previous election
 Uttar Pradesh - increase of 18%
 Rajasthan - 10%,
 Goa -14%
 Uttarakhand, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh
- around 8-9% increase
Comparative increase in
Male/Female turnout
Persisting Challenges
(enrolment)
 Gender ratio on Rolls is lagging behind gender
ratio in census by more than 10 points in 15
States
 Of these gender gap is more than 50 points in
6 states
 Gap between census and electoral roll gender
ratio vary by more than 90 points in Uttar
Pradesh
Challenges
(turnout)
 Gender gap in turnout in LS 2009 was more than
5% in 9 states viz Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat,
J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan,
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh with Madhya
Pradesh leading with a gap of more than 13%,
J&K with 12% and Gujarat having a gap of
around 9%
 In Assembly Elections, the gender gap is
minimised in most states post 2009
Expectations from Consultation
 Identify ways by which the Ministries/ Departments/organisations can
partner with the Commission at national and at State level
 Integrating women’s electoral participation/voters’ education with
various national programmes and outreach programmes of the
departments
 Strengthen the collaboration with CSOs in the field of registration also
for voting especially at State and district level
 Greater and sustained contribution from private media in the run up
to the Lok Sabha elections
 Concrete commitment by Public Sector and Corporate Sector to this
participation agenda as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility
thanks