Only 6 per cent of women candidates will take part in the first phase of the much-awaited Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
As per data available on the ECI website, there are 94 per cent men and only 6 per cent women candidates contesting in the upcoming elections, which again has raised questions about women's representation in politics.
Of the 65 candidates fielded for the first phase of the forthcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections by the BJP, Congress, NC, and PDP, just four are females.
Significantly, it is the first Assembly election since Parliament passed the Women Reservation Bill last year for giving 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and State Assemblies.
When the Bill was passed, NC's Omar Abdullah and PDP's Mehbooba Mufti welcomed it. Then, Congress and BJP both claimed ownership of the bill, initially brought to Parliament in 2010 during UPA Government rule.
But in terms of actual representation in the first phase, all four lag. So far, the National Conference has fielded two women out of its 18 candidates —former Minister Sakina Ittoo from DH Pora and Kishtwar DDC chairperson Pooja Thakur from Padder-Nagseni.
The PDP, despite being helmed by a woman, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, has fielded only one female candidate out of 22, her daughter, Iltija, from Srigufwara-Bijbehara.
The list of 16 candidates announced by BJP has only one female contender in Shagun Parihar Kishtwar, daughter of Ajit Parihar, who was killed in a terror attack.
Congress is not fielding any female candidates for the nine seats allotted to it. The situation is not much different for other mainstream political parties.
During the 2014 Assembly polls, not one woman was elected from these seven districts. Before delimitation, these were 22 seats – two less than the present number.
In 2008, however, there were two women MLAs were elected from the 22 candidates – Mehbooba Mufti from Wachi in Shopian and Sakina Ittoo from Noorabad in Kulgam.
According to the Election Commission of India, as many as 48.9 per cent of the electors are women in the current Assembly election against the total electors, which means nearly every second voter is a female.
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