Fewer women voted for LS polls in Thane dist

Thane: The overall turnout of women voters in Thane district remained low as majority of the 18 assembly constituencies saw every second registered female voter failing to turn up to cast her vote.
Interstingly, Bhiwandi rural assembly constituency witnessed the highest turnout of women voters as nearly 61.7% females voting while in comparison, Dombivli registered the least turnout of female voters at 38.91% this Lok Sabha season. The Belapur constituency that has a woman MLA also saw a dismal 48% voting by women.
In comparison with urban pockets, the rural areas of the district saw higher women turnout. While Shahpur saw near 55% turnout, over 53% women turned up to vote at Murbad. This is in stark contrats to the situation in the urban areas where Owala-Majiwada in Thane city saw barely 46% women voter turnout and Airoli saw just 43%. Experts blamed lack of adequate infrastructure at the booths and lapses in electoral rolls to be have kept majority of women away from exercising their votes.
Thane Mayor Meenakshi Shinde blamed the heat coupled with inordinate delays and lack of facilities at the booths for keeping the women away from voting this year. “Several polling centres had inadequate facilities like restrooms and even drinking water facilities which might have kept the women voters away from turning up at the polling centres. Several women also complained of having to wait for long at the booths which possibly discouraged others from venturing out in the heat,” she said.
Dombivli-based activist Lata Arghade blamed the political class for discouraging the woman and doing precious little to ease the burden off her head. “Many women travel for work from the suburbs but they have been facing the same old issues of less and crowded trains, poor transport infra which makes them think twice before going to vote,” says she.
BJP MLA Manda Mhatre from Belapur dismissed the lack of adequate awareness among women voters and claimed of conducting rallies in slum pockets to ensure the women voted. She however blamed the subsequent holidays over the weekend to have led the women of the house to join her families in vacationing.