New Delhi: Lok Sabha elections 2024 have been announced and all the parties have entered the battle. The Election Commission’s preparations are complete and it is gearing up to ensure successful voting. Meanwhile, there is also an incident when the Election Commission had to remove the names of 28 lakh women voters simultaneously. In fact, while preparing the voter list for India’s first Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission had to face a strange problem. In some states, many women voters registered on the basis of their relationships with male members of their families rather than their names.
Special efforts were made to spread awareness on this issue and the time period was specifically extended for such women voters to get their names included in the voter list for the elections of 1951-52. According to an official report published in 1955 on the first general election, however, about 28 lakh women out of approximately 8 crore women voters in the country then failed to disclose their correct names and their information had to be removed from the voter list.
Most cases from these states
It also said that practically all such cases came from the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Vindhya Pradesh. The Election Commission, which came into existence a day before India became a republic in 1950, conducted 17 general elections. But in holding the first general elections, it had to face many challenges related to both the geography and demography of the country, a large section of which was then illiterate.
Women could not take the names of their husbands
The Election Commission’s report on the 1951-52 Lok Sabha elections read, ‘While preparing the voter list, it has come to the notice of the Election Commission that in some states a large number of women voters have registered not in their own names but in their names along with the male members of their families. Are registered on the basis of relationships (for example mother, wife etc.). The reason for this is that according to local traditions, women in these areas shy away from telling their true names to strangers.
Got one month extension in Bihar
As soon as this matter came to the notice of the Election Commission, instructions were given that the name of the voter should be registered in the voter list as an essential part of his identity and no voter should be registered without his name. The report said, ‘In Bihar, a special extension of one month was given to fill such applications so that the names of women voters could be prevented from being removed from the voter list. This expansion was put to good use and the voter list in the state improved significantly. However, the time period extension was given in Rajasthan also but the results there were poor.
Remarkable step of Election Commission
Former Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Chandra Bhushan Kumar said that allowing women voters to enroll their names in the voter list was a ‘very remarkable step’ taken by the Election Commission. He told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, ‘It was a difficult decision in those days but the Election Commission of India took up the responsibility and now the result is in front of us. Now, in most places we see that women are voting in greater numbers than men or their voting percentage is more than that of male voters. According to the report published on the first general election, the total number of registered voters across India (except Jammu and Kashmir) was more than 17.3 crore. Of these, approximately 45 percent were women voters.
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Tags: election commission
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 19, 2024, 14:24 IST