Recently I read that 40% of the women in this country who vote, vote independently of their husbands. This is a statistic that resonated very strongly with me because I had already suspected as much. This is significant as these were not metro-oriented women but from the villages, who had become in the last four years, so politically aware of what they wanted out of their lives that they sometimes chose to disagree with who their families traditionally voted for, neither voting by caste nor by their husband’s choice of preference.
Now, by and large, all the major political parties of this country have ignored this massive vote bank. Even with the discrimination against women, the lack of literacy etc., if a whole 40% of all women actually cast their votes and 60% of that 40% are independent thinkers in terms of their priorities, then we have a huge vote bank which has been disregarded.
The only guy who seems to have got it right in the last couple of years and nobody gave him credit for it—Nitish Kumar in Bihar. When Nitish Kumar was doing his door to door and village to village charcha, as it might be called, he realised that women had only a single point agenda as far as what their political representative was supposed to do for them—prohibition. Now, why prohibition? It is a no-no, it has never worked, it is an untouchable for most politicians. But for women it is a very integral part of their wish list because they believe that 90% of all their problems originate in men drinking too much. Men tend to drink away their earnings, leaving no money for food, clothing or education for the children, which is a very big priority in the women’s area of function. Secondly, because of their drinking they tend to become erratic in their workspace, and probably lose their jobs, landing up on a daily wage basis which is sporadic at best. Thirdly, their low self esteem combined with drinking, finds an outlet in violence in the house against the women, because the men, for some reason, hold the women responsible for all their problems.
Now Nitish Kumar very astutely realised that if he was to address this problem, he would alienate 50% of the men who are all drinkers or who didn’t like the idea of their freedom being curbed. He bit the bullet, took a risk and actually promised prohibition if he was elected. How many men voted for him, nobody knows. But we know that he won with the overwhelming support of the women. Now immaterial of whether it works or doesn’t, at least he tried! So he delivered on his promise. Therefore the women in Bihar are strongly behind him. Even in the future when he promises something, they know he will deliver because he has delivered against all odds, advice and practicality.
If the politicians ignore women as a solid vote bank, they do so at their own peril. The right wing parties of this country completely disregard women as major players in the future of this country. All they do is tokenism because misogynist culture is so deeply ingrained in them, that they find it very difficult to actually include women at a very basic level in the thought process. I don’t know how much of a part women in this present election are going to play, but if I’m not wrong, it will be a pretty important role. You cannot lump women with the family or with the caste or religion.
The first time the BJP actually addressed the women of this country, happened to be in the triple talaq case where they addressed the Muslim women directly. Now how much dividend this is going to pay them, only the new elections will actually show when we see how much of the Muslim vote comes to the BJP—because none of the men will vote for them! I don’t know if this decision to split the Muslim vote, by wooing the Muslim women by offering them some measure of dignity, was a strategic one…would they do the same for Hindu women, who are equally ill-treated? I doubt it.
Women have a different set of priorities. What matters to them is food on the table, education for the children and a future for the next generation because they know that they personally are trapped by the system but they want different for their children. They want their children to be set free and the only way they can do that is by educating them. They made their vote count, silently, efficiently, ‘secretly’! Our political parties need to wake up and address the real issues of women without trying to make it strategic.
