Are women becoming a vote bank category in India

BY-MEHAK DATTA

“For me, a better democracy, is a place where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect but to be elected.”

In today’s world, every political party wants to be in power but just by providing false hopes and beliefs to people, not by hardworking and actually proving why they are better than the others. No one wants to work but everyone wants to be in power.

Nowadays all the political parties have found a new way to fill their vote banks and that is to target the soft audience i.e. Womens. They exactly know which topic would be grab attention of the audience and fill up their vote banks. The issues that are in favour of women such as triple talak could be the best example how the government plays with the mindset of people and befool us. Why do you think such sensitive topic are raised just before any of the elections whether state or district are to be taken place?

Why does government suddenly get alarmed by the situation poor and slum people are facing and starts to distribute “shawls and kambals”? And why only the poor section or the women are being targeted? The answer to all these is that they know how to play politics well and how targeting on soft audience could fill their vote banks.

Let’s take quite a good and relatable example,

The former CM of Delhi Mr. ARVIND KEJRIWAL released a guarantee card or say an election manifesto that consist of 10 promises he made to do if his party wins the election. Out of all the 10 50% were based on environment issues going on and other 50% included women safety and education to children.

Some of were

• DTS buses would be free for women and students.
• “Mohalla marshals” would be assigned for the safety of women.
• To give ‘pukka’ houses to people living in slums under the ‘Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makan’
• CCTV and Mohalla clinics for the unauthorised colonies.

But do you really think these were effectively implemented and even if yes are they really a logically option for the development? By making DTS buses free to travel for women will it make it safe from the harassment they face inside buses? Or by appointing Mohalla marshals is there any guarantee that they would not be the one involved in eve teasing the most common problem faced by the women? Being a woman myself I don’t want any free rides instead I want a safe ride which involves me not getting harassed by any passenger.

They make these false promises just to get more no of votes and not because they actually want it to do it for them. It’s just the way political parties could ensure their victory in the elections. Why not we actually promise things which are in favour of every section of the society and start working once they win with the actually effective solution to all the safety issues and real-life problems faced by every citizen. A free bus ride isn’t why people are appointing you as the CM of their state! Instead of promising and creating such a beautiful manifesto with false promises which the youth isn’t fascinated by, we should start working towards the true development. A political party should never forget that if citizens have the power to appoint them, they also have the power to remove them.

“DEMOCRACY CANNOT SUCCEED UNLESS THOSE WHO EXPRESS THEIR CHOICES ARE READY TO CHOOSE WISELY”