POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE AND WOMEN IN INDIA

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Chapter 17 PARTICIPATION IN VOTING:
The participation of women in voting day by day is increasing in India. After Indian independence from Britain, the Indian Constitution in 1950 officially granted women and men suffrage automatically. There was no need to fight for this right; they have equal political right from the stating of the journey of constitution. Prior to universal suffrage, provincial legislatures had granted women the right to vote. Actually in the movement for women's suffrage began in the early 1900s in response to a national movement for suffrage, even though vast majority of neither men nor women had a right to vote during the British colonial rule before 1947. Historically, there was Madras which was the first to grant women's suffrage in 1921, but only to those men and women who owned land property according to British administration's records. Other legislatures followed shortly after, but like Madras, the political rights were granted by British Raj to select few, and the London appointed Governor of each province had the right to overrule and nullify any law enacted by the elected men and women. The rights granted in response to the movement towards suffrage were limited to qualifications of literacy and property ownership, including property ownership of husbands. This excluded vast majority of Indian women and men from voting, because they were poor. This changed in 1950 when universal suffrage was granted to all adult Indian citizens.
In 1950, universal suffrage granted voting rights to all women. This is enshrined in Article 326 in our constitution. India is a parliamentary system with two houses: Lok Sabha (lower house) and Rajya Sabha (upper house). Rates of participation among women in 1962 were 46.63% for Lok Sabha elections and rose to a high in 1984 of 58.60%. Male turnout during that same period was 63.31% in 1962 and 68.18% in 1984.
The gap between men and women voters has narrowed over time with a difference of