Me, The Change

Women in India are voting now more than ever. In fact, today in most states, the female voter turnout is surpassing that of men. Evidently then, we are a politically conscious lot. But how do we vote and what do we want from the people we vote for? Femina has the answers. In a survey of select female millennial voters, from different metros, women reveal their preference for electronic voting machines, an online voting system, and candidates without a criminal history. We also get five women to speak about their concerns and how they’d like the next government to tackle them.

- Ruchi Chopda

Political parties and analysts rarely see eye to eye. But the one thing they agree on is that women will decide India’s 2019 elections. Not surprising, since we already made history in the 2014 general elections by greatly narrowing the voter turnout gap between men and women (female voter turnout rose to a historic high of 65.5 per cent as against 67 per cent for men) and electing an all-time high of 61 women leaders to the lower house. And, if our survey of over 100 millennial women from metros— Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, and Ahmedabad—is anything to go by, millennial women are raring to vote again. Almost 64 per cent of registered voters said they will be voting in the upcoming elections and 34.3 per cent stated that they were first-time voters.

Shriya Pilgaonkar, ACTOR

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