What Lies Behind India’s Rising Female Voter Turnout In Lok Sabha Elections 2024

Most constituencies that went to the polls in the first four phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections saw more women voting than in the 2019 general election, as per an SBI research report. The net incremental share of women voters in this period is reported at 93.6 lakh, significantly higher than the increase of 84.7 lakh in the participation of their male counterparts. The report attributes this increase in women's participation to the significant ground-level impact of three women-centric schemes: Ujjwala Yojana, Matru Vandana Yojana, and PM Awas Yojana, particularly in rural areas. An interesting observation from the study is the structural shift evident in voter turnout patterns and electoral outcomes at select intervals, which have decisively defined Indian politics over the last three decades. The 1996 elections and the 2014 election reveal the structural change; while in 1996, it was in terms of the number of electorates, in 2024, the structural break came in the form of increased women voter turnout. For the three successive elections beginning in 2014, 2019, and in 2024, the average incremental voter turnout is a whopping 8 crores, which is four times higher than the average incremental voter turnout of 2 crores for the 15 elections held before 2014. To understand voting trends and more, watch BTTV Managing Editor Siddharth Zarabi in conversation with Yashwant Deshmukh, Founder-Director, C-Voter and Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor, SBI.