Much of the political discourse within India’s first-past-the post system focuses on catering to special interest groups, with caste, language and religion being obvious targets. However, in order to break through these barriers, politicians would like to address what they think are certain broad categories, those that are demographically grouped (youth, senior-citizens) and/or gender based. Given that Election Commission data gives no real hints on gender-based voting patterns, the ‘female vote’ remains a slightly abstract concept. Nonetheless, Modi has demonstrated a good ability to form and execute policies that essentially benefit women more.

One women-focused policy is the government’s massive toilet-building programme. Lack of toilets in households, particularly in rural areas, was a major sanitation as well as security issue for women. Modi announced the scheme on his first Independence Day speech in 2014. As of this year, 80 million household toilets have been constructed out of a target of 110 million, under the broader ‘Clean India’ initiative, with sanitation coverage during the period up from 39 per cent of households to 81 per cent.

Multiple other policies have been adopted that either directly or significantly benefit women. The ‘Ujjwala’ scheme has provided cooking-gas connections to households dependent on polluting/poorer forms of kitchen fuel. Housing for All makes it mandatory to have a woman as the main/co-beneficiary. Also 74 per cent of all loans under the Mudra (easy loan) scheme are to women. Modi himself has promoted ‘Save the Daughters, Teach the Daughters’ campaign, designed to increase couples’ preference for baby girls. Recent attempts by BJP to pass the “Triple Talaq” Bill specifically targets women by seeking to end the practice of granting Muslim couples a divorce on the basis of the husband simply uttering the word ‘talaq’ (Urdu for divorce) three times in a row.