As India heads into much-awaited general elections that begin April 11, Outlook brings to you some interesting facts about the demographic profile of the 543 parliamentary constituencies in the past two general elections. We focus on the marked rise in female voters.
According to data, in the 2014 elections the all-India number of female voters stood at over 26 crore: 26,05,65,022.
The number of female voters rose by nearly 7 crore (6,95,36,025) since the 2009 elections, when the number was below 20 crore -- at 19,10,28,997.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, across 117 constituencies, the number of female voters per constituency was over 5.5 lakh, in 122 constituencies, it was between 5 to 5.5 lakh, in 127 constituencies it was between 4.5 to 5 lakh, while in 177 constituencies the number of female voters was below 4.5 lakh.
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Almost the entire West Bengal, large parts of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and western Rajasthan, have female voters numbering over 5.5 lakh per constituency.
Conversely, almost the whole of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh, large parts of Jammu and Kashmir, northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, a chunk of southern Chhattisgarh, some bits of Jharkhand, northern Bihar and Madhya Pradesh had female voters numbering below 4.5 lakh per constituency.
Three constituencies with the highest number of female voters were Malkajgiri in Andhra Pradesh – 7,42,304; Gauhati (Assam) with 7,26,235 and Banglaore Rural (Karnataka) with 6,96,625 female voters. (Courtesy India Elects 2014)
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Three constituencies with the lowest female voters were Lakshadweep (ST) with 21,654, followed by the Union Territory of Daman & Diu with 44,855 and Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir with 59,994 (Courtesy India Elects 2014).
In the 2009 elections, 166 constituencies had female voters numbering over 4 lakh, with almost the entire Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Nagaland, Punjab and large chunks of Assam, Haryana and Karnataka having the highest concentration of such parliamentary constituencies.
There were 106 constituencies with female voters numbering between 3.5 to 4 lakh, 92 constituencies with between 3 to 3.5 lakh female voters, and 179 constituencies with female voters below 3 lakh.
Almost the entire Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Meghalaya, parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand northern Bihar, and a chunk of southern Chhattisgarh had female voters below 3 lakh per constituency.
The constituency with the highest number of female voters in 2009 was Nagaland (Nagaland) at 5,75, 635, followed by Ghatal (West Bengal) at 5,74,178, and Tamluk (West Bengal) with 5,56,715 female voters.
The constituencies with the lowest female voters were the Union Territory of Lakshadweep (ST) with 19,777, Daman & Diu with 35,522 and Dadar & Nagar Haveli with 52,617 female voters. (Courtesty India Elects 2014)
