Kumar said that this ban was motivated by a promise he had made on the campaign trail to women, who had told him that rampant alcoholism was devastating their families and communities.ДЄs India gears up for the 2019 general elections, womenвЂ™s status has become a focal point of campaign rhetoric. As Indian women become more politically mobilized, this seems to be changing how Indian candidates campaign and how they govern once they are in office.ДЇor example, in the state of Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar brought in a draconian new anti-alcohol law in 2015 when he was reelected. Is the fact that more women are voting already making a difference in terms of policy? This means that, despite progress, Indian women suffer a double-blow at the polls: above and beyond an entrenched preference for sons (which results in illegal sex-selective abortion and fewer educational opportunities for girls than boys), women are less likely than men to be registered to vote. There are only 908 women for every 1,000 men on the countryвЂ™s voter rolls. The sex ratio among IndiaвЂ™s registered voters is even worse.

This places India near the bottom at 186 out of 194 countries, according to the World Bank. According to the countryвЂ™s 2011 census, the country has approximately 943 women for every 1,000 men. This is because even though a higher percentage of female voters go to the polls, there is a significant gender imbalance in IndiaвЂ™s general population. More women are voting than ever before, but their overall size as a voting bloc still lags behind men. Does this shift mean that more women are voting in India than men overall?

It seems plausible that some concerns that disproportionately impact women-such as public safety or healthcare-have often taken a backseat, because women have historically tended to be less politically engaged than men. And because many more men have always turned out to vote, it is perhaps unsurprising that mainstream parties have never seen women as a vital constituency worth wooing. Why does this shift matter particularly in India?ДЇor decades, voting in India has been a male-dominated enterprise. For instance, IndiaвЂ™s Election Commission has been trying to encourage more women to vote by improving the safety of polling booths to reduce voter intimidation and by setting up separate queues for women on election day. State institutions have been trying to make voting easier for women as well. These groups were not set up to achieve a political goal, but they may be having political consequences. Some evidence suggests that when women take part in these economic networks, they are more likely to get involved in politics. They have also been taking part in collective organizing in unprecedented numbers, usually through small local groups in which women encourage one another to save money and pool their resources to pay for emergency needs. This could be making them more politically aware. Indian women are steadily becoming more literate, more educated, and wealthier. There is likely a combination of push and pull factors at work: more women want to vote, and institutions are encouraging them more to go to the polls. But by 2014, that gap had shrunk to just 1.8 percentage points. As recently as 2004, men held an 8.4 percentage-point turnout advantage over women in national elections. Men in India have always turned out to vote in larger numbers than women, as far back as the data goes. This is a remarkable turn of events in a deeply patriarchal, conservative society. Today, womenвЂ™s turnout has actually been higher than that of men in two-thirds of IndiaвЂ™s state elections. Women in India are casting their ballots more frequently, and in greater numbers. Are Indian women voting at higher rates than before?