Summary of this article
In Kerala, women voters at 1.39 crore, outnumber men at 1.32 crore
In Assam, women comprise 49.98 per cent of the electoral roll but make up only 8.17 per cent of the total candidates contesting
There are 92 women candidates in the fray in Kerala
Assam and Kerala vote to elect a new government on April 9. Women have emerged as a key voting bloc that parties have sought to win over through welfare schemes and monetary support. However, while parties try to outdo one another with their women-centric guarantees, that very vote bank still struggles to break through in the political race.
The case of these two states stands out in particular. In ‘God’s Own Country’ down south, Kerala is the only state where the female-to-male ratio is higher than 1. According to data available on the Election Commission website, women voters, at 1.39 crore, outnumber men at 1.32 crore. Over the past 20 years, the percentage of women electors has consistently been higher than that of their male counterparts. Since 2006, women have exercised this franchise equally and, in some cases, have recorded higher voter turnout than men.
This electoral behaviour, however, is not reflected in the candidate pool. In 2006, just 17 women contested across Kerala’s 140 constituencies. The next assembly election saw a marginal rise with 37 women candidates; in both these elections, only seven women succeeded. However, in a sudden spike in 2016, a notable 102 women candidates entered the fray, a number that has slightly decreased to 92 in this assembly election.
While the participation of women in Kerala politics since 2016 has been encouraging, the glass ceiling has only been cracked, not shattered. Only eight women candidates were successfully elected that year. In the last assembly election, that number rose marginally as three more women were elected, forming a mere 8 per cent of the legislative assembly.
These figures raise a pressing question: in a state with the highest literacy rate, the highest female-to-male ratio, and where women form the majority of the votebank, why are women still not adequately represented in the assembly?
Meanwhile, in Assam, women comprise 49.98 per cent of the electoral roll but make up only 8.17 per cent of the total candidates contesting. Similar to Kerala, Assam has, over the past 20 years, steadily closed the gap between male and female electors, with women now forming nearly half the votebank. Yet the northeastern state has consistently maintained an approximately 8 per cent share of women candidates.
Even more disappointingly, the number of successful women candidates from 2006 to 2026 has fallen from an already low 13 to just six, forming barely 5 per cent representation in Assam’s legislative assembly.
Multiple schemes, low representation
Political parties across India have increasingly targeted women in their election guarantees. Most recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking to appeal to women voters amid concerns over their low representation in electoral politics, said in campaign rallies that there is a need for greater participation of women in Parliament and state assemblies.
He promised that 33 per cent reservation for women would be implemented from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and urged women to persuade all political parties to build consensus so the Bill can be taken up in the special session of Parliament beginning April 16.
However, the political landscape of women-related schemes has evolved significantly over the last two decades.
Hena Singh, professor in the Department of Political Science at Miranda House and Founder of Policy Centre & Gender Lab, explains the shift, “Women-centric schemes have become a prominent feature of electoral politics in India in recent years. Earlier, women certainly benefitted from welfare policies, but they were rarely addressed as a distinct political constituency during elections. Today, we are seeing a clear change. Political parties are increasingly acknowledging and recognising that women are not just beneficiaries of policy but a decisive voting group on their own.”
She adds, “I believe the reason for it is very simple: women constitute nearly half the population. Their electoral participation has also been rising steadily, as evident in the recent Bihar elections.”
In Assam, during the Congress years—particularly around the 2006 and 2011 elections under Tarun Gogoi—women-focused policies largely centred on social welfare and development interventions. These included expanding women’s self-help groups, strengthening maternal and child health services, promoting institutional deliveries, and improving women’s participation in local governance through panchayat reservations.
In more recent elections, however, parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2016 and 2021 Assam Assembly polls have increasingly foregrounded direct monetary assistance schemes for women as a central electoral promise. The most prominent example is the Orunodoi Scheme launched in 2020, which provides monthly financial support to economically vulnerable households, with the money transferred directly to the woman of the family.
Orunodoi continues to be a major political talking point during the 2026 election campaign, as Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has promised to raise the assistance to ₹3,000. He has also pledged ₹25,000 financial assistance to existing beneficiaries and the expansion of the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Udyamita Abhijan to help create 40 lakh “Lakhpati Baideos”.
These schemes are not limited to ruling parties alone. Opposition parties often attempt to outdo incumbents with competing promises. In Kerala, the opposition United Democratic Front has announced its “Indira guarantees”, which include free bus rides for women and a ₹1,000 monthly allowance for female college students.
Yet, despite the proliferation of schemes aimed at the women’s vote, women remain underrepresented in the assemblies.
Singh acknowledges that women’s participation as candidates in elections in India remains relatively low despite their growing importance as voters.
She claims that several structural and political factors explain this paradox, one such being patriarchal rigidity and limited access to education, which restricts a woman’s entry into politics.
“Political institutions themselves also play a role. Political parties remain largely male-dominated, and candidate selection is often controlled by entrenched leadership networks that tend to favour male candidates. Closely linked to this is the importance of political networks and resources. Contesting elections requires financial support, organisational support and long-standing connections, which many women find harder to access,” she adds.
The fight for women’s vote
Singh says the growing emphasis on women-centric welfare schemes reflects a broader shift in how women engage with politics. As she notes, “many everyday issues of governance directly affect women, such as cooking fuel, access to clean water, sanitation, health care and household welfare.” Because these concerns are closely tied to women’s daily responsibilities, schemes addressing them often have an immediate impact on family life.
Singh adds that women voters are often “less rigidly tied to traditional political loyalties”, with their choices shaped more by practical concerns affecting household well-being than inherited party affiliations. Rising access to education and information, particularly among younger women, has also enabled many to make independent voting decisions rather than relying on male family members.
Taken together, she argues, these shifts explain why political parties increasingly foreground women-focused schemes. Singh notes that the 2029 general election could mark a turning point for women’s representation following the passage of the Women's Reservation Act, which is expected to reserve one-third of seats in Parliament and state assemblies once delimitation is completed.
While women voters have become an increasingly decisive force in elections, structural barriers within political parties and broader social hierarchies continue to restrict their presence as candidates. The growing political importance of women has not yet translated into proportional representation in legislative bodies.
This disconnect is evident in states like Assam and Kerala, where women form a substantial share—if not the majority—of the electorate, yet remain sparsely represented in assemblies, sometimes despite high candidacy. Until this gap is bridged, no welfare scheme can substitute for what remains missing: governance of women, by women, and for women.
