Kolkata: There will be fewer women voters per 1,000 male electors than previous years in the 152 Bengal assembly constituencies that got to poll in the first phase on April 23.
The special intensive revision (SIR) of Bengal's electoral roll has resulted in a reversal of the proportional rise in the number of female voters against male voters over the past decade and a half, coinciding with the tenure of Bengal's first woman CM, Mamata Banerjee. From an all-time high of 970 female voters per 1,000 male voters immediately before the SIR, the ratio dropped to 956:1000 after the publication of the draft voters' list on Dec 16, before rising to 964:1000 in the final voters' list released on Feb 28.
For the 152 assembly seats across 16 districts that will vote in the first phase, the ratio was 952:1000 in the final voters' list but dipped further to 950:1000 after judicial scrutiny. The ratio for the 142 assembly seats that vote in the second phase is yet to be released by the Election Commission.
Among districts, the sharpest dip post-adjudication are in West Burdwan, Malda and Kalimpong. In West Burdwan, the number of female voters has dropped to 955 from 960 in the Feb 28 voters' list. In Malda, the count is down to 936 from 941 and in Kalimpong it has dipped to 999 from 1,005. Such drops are also noticeable in North and South Dinajpur and West Midnapore. However, in Murshidabad, which has faced the most deletions during judicial scrutiny, the drop is comparatively less — from 943 to 941. The reverse is true for only 2 of the 16 phase-1 districts — Darjeeling (1,007 to 1011) and Birbhum (966 to 968).
Historically, women possess fewer formal documents such as land records or caste certificates, making them more vulnerable to deletion from electoral rolls, says Sabar Institute researcher Sabir Ahamed. "In Bengal, this intersects with deeper structural gaps. Among matric/secondary pass as per Census 2011, women are only 41.8%, that is, 17% points behind men. According to one of our upcoming reports, ‘An Atlas of Social Indicators of West Bengal', women comprise just 20.5% of state govt employees and 27.5% of IAS officers. This means most women are less likely to hold the documents now required for SIR like Madhyamik certificate or proof of govt job. This raises serious concerns that documentation gap, marriage-linked migration and administrative lapses are silently erasing women from democracy," Ahamed said.
A state-wide Sabar Institute analysis shows female voters bear a disproportionately higher share of deletions and adjudication cases compared to the state average in SC and ST reserved constituencies. "Across the 67 SC seats, female voters account for 52.4% deletions and adjudication cases, which is 2.4 percentage points above the state average of 50.1%. The pattern is even more pronounced in the 16 ST seats, where females constitute 53.4% of the deletions and adjudication cases," said Ashin Chakraborty, another Sabar Institute researcher.
The drop effectively puts brakes in what was a rising trend for the past 15 years. In 2011, there were only 907 women for every 1,000 men on the voters' list. In 2016 and 2021, the proportion of female voters rose to 933 and 961, respectively. The rise in the proportion of women voters coincided with the tenure of Bengal's first woman chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, and was accompanied by an increase in women's participation in elections.
In the 2006 assembly polls, 80.7% of women electors voted compared to 82.3% men. In the 2011 elections, which saw Trinamool coming to office, 84.4% of women on the electoral roll turned up to vote compared to 84.2% men. The 2021 assembly polls saw 81.7% women turnout, which exceeded men's participation by 0.3%.
Political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay said, "The SIR exercise is making marginalised women more marginalised. They are the worst sufferers. Women, especially from poor backgrounds, are always at a disadvantage because there is a lack of consciousness that women may require so many documents and the need to keep them."