From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI, Nov 13: In a piquant situation in the three poll-bound states of Northeast — Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura — women voters outnumber male counterparts, but have least share in elected positions whether it is assemblies, Parliament or local bodies.
Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura are expected to be held in February after the polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, and Mizoram. Similar to previous voters’ lists, in the recently published draft electoral rolls for the three states, women outstripped male voters, but it was hard to find them among candidates in the electoral fray, let alone get elected.
In contrast, the states generally have a high ratio of female workers in managerial positions, with Meghalaya topping the chart with 34.1%, which is much higher than even the national average.
At the all-India level, the ratio of female workers to total workers in managerial positions is only 18.7%, according to an earlier official survey.
In total, 6,38,473 female voters outnumbered the male electorates of 6,37,311 in Nagaland and in Meghalaya 10,68,018 women voters exceeded the number of male electorates of 10,43,194. In Tripura too, out of 60 assembly seats, in at least seven assembly segments, women voters outnumbered their male electorates.
In general, the number of women ministers, MPs and MLAs in several Northeastern states is very less compared to their percentage in population. Nagaland in the last 50 years had only one female minister and three MLAs.
Currently, there are no women minister in Meghalaya, Nagaland and lone lady minister in Tripura though the states have three, zero and five MLAs respectively in their 60-member assemblies.
During the previous Congress government, there were three women MLAs in Meghalaya, out of whom two were ministers.
In Parliament, there was one only one MP in Lok Sabha from Nagaland and the present Rajya Sabha MP is the first woman to be elected from the tribal state.
Agatha Sangma, sitting MP from Lok Sabha, was the first woman MP and Union Minister while Wansuk Syiem was the lone Rajya Sabha MP from Meghalaya.
In Tripura, in recent memory, while Maharani Bibhu Kumari Devi made to both Assembly and then Parliament during Congress regime, she never became a minister at the Centre.
In the present NDA government, Pratima Bhowmik of BJP is a Union Minister in the NDA Government.
Number of women in the many autonomous councils and other local governing bodies of the Northeastern states including the poll bound ones is no better. Of the total of 466 seats in the assemblies of these states, only around 5 per cent are currently women.