As many as nine states have more women than men in the electoral roll for the coming Lok Sabha elections, with Kerala boasting of the highest gender ratio for voters, with a 1.31 crore female electorate compared with 1.22 crore male voters.
According to the electoral roll data drawn up for the general elections, in all, there are 89.7 crore voters, out of whom 46.5 crore are men and 43.1 crore are women, which works out to a gender ratio of 958. And there are as many as 31,292 third gender voters.
The national capital, Delhi, fares the worst in terms of the proportion of women in the electorate, with 61.3 lakh women registered as voters, compared with 75.5 lakh men, the gender ratio working out to 812.
Among the states having a greater number of women voters are four northeastern states: Manipur (9.9 lakh women as against 9.3 lakh men), Mizoram (4 lakh women as against 3.8 lakh men), Meghalaya (9.5 lakh women as against 9.3 lakh men) and Arunachal Pradesh (4 lakh women as against 3.9 lakh men).
The southern states of Tamil Nadu (2.98 crore women as against 2.92 crore men) and Andhra Pradesh (1.86 crore women as against 1.83 crore men) as also the Union territory of Puducherry (5 lakh women as against 4.5 lakh men) have more women voters than men voters. Goa also has more women voters than men voters—5.75 lakh women as against 5.51 lakh men.
Among the states that do not fare too well in terms of proportion of women voters to men are Uttar Pradesh, which has a 6.61 crore women electorate as against 7.79 crore men; Haryana, with 80 lakh women voters as compared with 93 lakh men voters, and Bihar, which has 3.32 crore women voters as against 3.73 crore men voters.
As many as 31,292 individuals have registered as third gender voters, with the highest number—8,374—in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Tamil Nadu (5,472) and Andhra Pradesh (3,761). Rajasthan, surprisingly, considering its size, does not have a single voter registered under the third gender category.
First-time voters in terms of those who have just turned 18, and hence are eligible to vote, number more than 1.5 crore.