Jharkhand: After Promising Female Voter Turnout, Historic 12 Women Voted MLAs

Jharkhand has made history as 12 women were elected Ministers in the Legislative Assembly in the November 2024 State elections. These are Purnima Sahu from Jamshedpur (East), Nisat Alam from Pakur, Deepika Pandey from Mahgama, Mamta Devi from Ramgarh, Shwettaa Singh from Bokaro, Shilpi Neha Tirkey from Mandar, Neera Yadav from Koderma, Manju Kumari from Jamua, Ragini Singh from Jharia, Kalpana Murmu Soren from Gandey, Lois Marandi from Jama, and Savita Mahto from Ichagarh.

Nisat, Purnima, and Shwettaa made their electoral debut this season. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led INDIA bloc defended its rule in the state, winning 56 seats in the 81-member state assembly. According to reports, Hemant Soren will once again take oath as the Chief Minister.

Voter Turnout In Recent Assembly Elections: A Paradigm Of Change

Women, in a general overview of the elections, saw a rise in voting turnout. The gender that took things into its hands instead of lamenting over a cup of chai every day. 

Women voters outnumbered men by 4.8% in the first phase of polling in Jharkhand for 43 of its 81 Assembly constituencies on November 13, 2024. In 2024, the number of seats where women turnout was higher, increasing more than double (68), as compared to 2019. 

As many as 37 of the 43 constituencies had more women casting their votes than men, according to the data released by the State Election Commission on November 15, 2024. 

In Maharashtra, the female voter turnout has risen from 59.26% in the 2019 elections to 65.21% this year, an increase of 5.95 percentage points.  Even, a 111-year-old woman exercised her franchise in the Naxalite-infested Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra.

Earlier this year, a similar pattern was observed in the tribal state of Odisha where the women turnout was 75.55% out of the 2.5 crore voters as compared to the 73.37% of men. However, in the state of Haryana, the cesspool of female turnout being low continued. 

Buying the Female Vote

The ruling government in the two states of Mharashtra and Jharkhand cited their schemes launched in the welfare of women as the major reason for the increased turnout of women at the polls.

JMM, the ruling party of Jharkhand more than doubled its monthly payout for 5 million women last month to ₹2,500, after Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised ₹2,100.

Similarly, the Maharashtra Government ran the "Majhi Ladki Behen Yojna" where more than 2 Lakh women in the state get a payout of ₹1,500 a month. 

Votes of women voiced by men

While the voter turnout is increased, one may note for the possible implications behind it. In a study published by the Association of Democratic Reform and Election Watch, only 53.7% of urban women answered yes when asked if they would go to vote during the Lok Sabha Elections. Whereas, 80% of rural women answered in affirmative.

Urban women are more likely to be educated and more likely to make an informed choice. Yet, the voter turnouts are low. At the rural areas, some women may vote aspiring for a change while some vote manipulated by their family members.

"It is equally true that while women came out to vote in big numbers, in Jharkhand, which is predominantly a rural state, family and male members still dominate decision making including voting choices,” Sudhir Pal from Election Watch told the publication.