Bihar Elections: Can Bihar Overturn Dismal History Of Women Representation?

Nandini Raj — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:53:39 +0000

A report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a citizen-led, non-political NGO which works on electoral and political reforms in India, reveals that out of 8163 candidates who contested elections in Bihar (Parliamentary, State Assembly and/or Legislative Council Elections) between 2006 to 2016, only 610 or 7% were women. The same report discloses that 20% women candidates declared criminal cases & 18% declared serious criminal cases against themselves. With this as the background, this article aims to fragment and understand the status of women representatives in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, 2015 Assembly Elections & 2019 Bye-Elections in Bihar.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections in Bihar, women voter turnout was nearly 59.92% against 55.26% male turnout. During the same elections, only 9% (56) women candidates contested in the elections and out of 40 overall winners, only three were women. Such a drastic gap between the large percentage of women voters and the meagre representation of women legislators, forces us to ponder over the possible reasons for such poor women representation in Bihar. Moreover, all these three women MPs were crorepatis, and had declared criminal and serious criminal cases against themselves. While one MP was 10th Pass, the other two were graduate and post-graduate respectively, at the time of analysis conducted by ADR.

As per a research paper titled – Women Representation in Parliament: A continuing predicament – by Ms Vaishali Rawat (previously a researcher at ADR) – about 75% of the 16th Lok Sabha women MPs had political connections, and only 20.63% women MPs had zilch political-influential connections. It is interesting to note that the three women MPs elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections in Bihar are/were wives of Indian politicians. This raises the issue of dynasty politics which is deeply rooted not only in Bihar but also in other parts of India.

During the Bihar Assembly Elections 2015, 8% (273) women contested in the elections, out of which 15% had criminal and 10% had serious criminal cases against themselves. Out of 28 women MLAs analysed by ADR in the same elections, nine had criminal and five had serious criminal cases against themselves. The only woman who was given a ministerial berth, had an untainted background at the time of analysis and was 12th Pass. Moreover, 2015 Bihar Assembly Elections saw a decline in the number of women MLAs (28) against 2010 Bihar Assembly Elections (34 women MLAs). This decline raises questions regarding the changed mindset of the Bihar electorate.

Talking about the candidates contested in the Bihar Assembly Elections 2015, 24% women candidates were literate which made the majority, followed by 12th Pass & 10th Pass with 18% and 17%, respectively. Out of the 28 women MLAs analysed by ADR in the same elections, around 29% of the women MLAs were 12th Pass which made the majority, followed by 18% 10th Pass women MLAs.

ADR’s analysis revealed that, out of 273 women candidates, around 88 (32%) were crorepati candidates and out of 28 women MLAs, about 64% were crorepati candidates. Also, it doesn’t come across as a surprise that the only woman who was given the ministerial berth was a crorepati minister, at the time of analysis.

Bihar recently saw bye-elections in 2019 in five constituencies wherein out of 43 candidates, only four (9%) women candidates contested in the elections and no one managed to secure a seat which again reflects the poor women representation in the Bihar Elections.

In an analysis by Economic & Political Weekly released in January 2011, patriarchal structure of Indian politics, no women reservation in Parliament and State Assembly elections, lack of family support, and reluctance in giving tickets to women by the political parties were some of the reasons for poor representation of women in the legislature.

Political parties claim that “winnability factor” is one of the major reasons for not giving tickets to women. An article in Business Standard puts this myth to rest by revealing that in 2010 Bihar Assembly Elections, 91% of JD (U) and 84% of BJP female contestants had won. The same article also revealed how political realignment in 2015 Bihar Assembly Elections hurt the women’s representation.

In a research paper, Women Legislators and Economic Performance (paper focussing on India’s state legislative assemblies), researchers reveal that:

legislators with a criminal record are more likely to practise corruption, to have priorities other than economic development, and, possibly, are less likely to provide a stable business environment
male legislators (in the close election sample) are about three times as likely as female legislators to have criminal charges pending against them
women legislators in India raise luminosity growth in their constituencies by about 15 percentage points per annum more than male legislators

2020 Bihar Assembly elections will be the first election wherein the Election Commission of India will implement the Supreme Court’s order on listing the reasons for giving tickets to tainted candidates by political parties. With this and the findings mentioned in the paper -Women Legislators and Economic Performance – as the basis, it can be said that there is a huge scope of increasing the representation of women representation. This development could reduce criminality and corruption, and advance the socio-economic condition of Bihar.

It is explicit that women voter turnout is increasing while women representation still remains insignificant in Bihar elections. To ensure better women representation in the upcoming Bihar elections, it is paramount that political parties in Bihar reserve 33% tickets for women, corresponding to West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress and Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal who had fielded 41% and 33% women candidates, respectively, in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. The responsibility to empower women leaders doesn’t end with reserving seats, it is critical that the reserved tickets should be given to women candidates with no criminal and political-influential background. More importantly, the political parties should assure financial assistance by supporting the political campaigns of the women candidates.

Women in Bihar protested against the increased liquor consumption and it is noteworthy how to garner votes from them ahead of 2015 Bihar Assembly Elections, Mr Nistish Kumar (current Chief Minister of Bihar) promised liquor prohibition. It was the same demand which Mr Kumar had once refused but after winning the 2015 Assembly Elections, he declared Bihar as a dry state and fulfilled his promise which he made to the women of Bihar. With this, it is evident how women can influence policies positively. It is fair to say that women voters in Bihar will be playing a major role in deciding the new government in Bihar.

With the 2020 Bihar Assembly Elections around the corner, it raises some pertinent questions like – will the political parties give tickets to more women candidates and if they do so, will women dynasts be favoured?, will Bihar see a rise in women Ministers and MLAs?, will the current women MLAs retain their respective seat?, and more importantly, will the Bihar electorate vote for women candidates with no criminal background?

The article was originally published on The Logical Indian.

Image Credit: TV9 Gujarati

Regulation of political propaganda/campaigning on social media

Nandini Raj — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 11:24:21 +0000

General Elections 2014 marked social media platforms as a major tool to impact the dynamics of politics. It is no news that social media played a key role to spread fake news, hate speech, and paid news to mislead voters. Hence, prior to the Lok Sabha 2019, Election Commission of India (ECI), along with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), and social media giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter and other platforms, adopted a “Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Election 2019” to regulate the misuse of social media.

The code allows the social media platforms to implement policies and processes which assure access to information on electoral matters which are appropriate while keeping in mind the principle of freedom of expression.¹

With the increasing flow of fake news, paid news and hate speech to elevate the political propaganda, it becomes paramount to monitor political activities on social media. Following are a few measures taken by ECI and some social media giants:

ECI made it mandatory for all the candidates contesting in 2019 elections to mention their social media handles in their affidavit. They also made it compulsory for all political social media advertisements to pre-certify from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMCs) in place at the district and state levels.

Facebook partnered with third-parties for fact-check and made their Ad Library public which displays all active and inactive ads around social issues, elections and politics to bring ad transparency. Similar ad library measure has been also opted by Twitter and Google.

Google went one step ahead and hosted training sessions for Indian journalists on online verification and fact-checking, journalist digital safety and security, YouTube for elections coverage and data visualization for elections.

Now, Twitter only allows political campaigning ads to run via promoted tweets and in-stream video ads. To run political ads, the political advertiser has to obtain Twitter Certification.²

In a white paper called Stopping Abuse released by WhatsApp in early 2019, the company revealed that they deleted around 2 million accounts to tackle fake news.³ These accounts have bulk or automated behaviour which means they send high volumes of messages. WhatsApp also launched CheckPoint Tipline which allows its users to submit suspicious content to know its authenticity. In 2 months of CheckPoint’s launch, it received about 75,000 authentication requests from the users.⁴

ECI together with social media platforms have developed a notification mechanism. The electoral body notifies about the violation under Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, and on other matters. Post which, an action is taken on such violations within three hours.

During General Elections 2019, Twitter deleted around 220 tweets by May, Facebook deleted about 702 pages, accounts and groups (as reported on 01 April 2019).⁵ About 60 Facebook political advertisement posts were found during the silent period.⁶ These contents were taken down on the grounds of violation of Code of Ethics, communal hate, junk news and bypassing anti-spam.⁷

With this as the background, we land up with some important questions like how far we have reached with the above-listed regulation strategies. Are the implemented strategies enough to tackle the spread of fake news, hate speech and paid news for a country like India? Are voters even aware about the above-listed regulation strategies? How gravely have social media platforms affected General Elections 2019? Did the impact of social media decrease in this General Elections in comparison to General Elections 2014?

References:

ADR Speaks » Nandini Raj

Bihar Elections: Can Bihar Overturn Dismal History Of Women Representation?

Regulation of political propaganda/campaigning on social media