According to the SBI Report, women voters will increase at a significant rate compared to men by 2029. It is expected that by the end of this decade, there will be a significant change in India’s electoral landscape.
The SBI report predicts that 68 crore voters will cast their votes in the next general election in 2024, with 33 crore (or 49 per cent) of those voters being women. According to the SBI report, starting in 2029, the number of registered women voters (37 crore) may surpass that of registered men voters (36 crore).
The report further mentioned that in 2047, women's voter turnout might rise to 55 per cent while men's turnout might decline to 45 per cent as over the past ten years, women's involvement in Indian politics has increased.
There were only eight crore voters in the 1951 elections continuing in the 2009 elections, India saw around 42 crore voters with 19 crore being female. 2014 saw a 13.7 crore rise in voter turnout, reaching 55 crore, of which 26 crore were female. For women, it was 5.8x higher and for men, it was 5.2x.
The Lok Sabha elections of 2019 saw a higher percentage of female voters than male voters. In the 2019 general election, 67.18 per cent of female voters cast their votes, compared to 67.01 per cent of male voters.
In state assembly elections, the female voter’s count has increased even more. 18 of the 23 major states where polls conducted over the previous five years have witnessed women turning out to vote at higher rates than men did. To be noted, out of those 18 states, 10 saw higher voter turnout among women than among men, and in those 10 states, the same government was re-elected.
Women currently make up 15 per cent of the 17th Lok Sabha's total membership. On average, women make up 9 per cent of the members of state legislative assemblies.
In national legislatures across Scandinavia, including Sweden, Norway, and South Africa, the representation of women exceeds 45 per cent whereas Japan runs at just 10 per cent.
