DMK planned to attract women voters who had defected from AIADMK. So, after coming to power, DMK introduced many schemes for women. Will it attract women votes in Lok Sabha elections? Will DMK’s new plans work? – Here’s a detailed look.
Jayalalithaa is one of the leaders who attracted more women voters in Tamil Nadu. Many of his female fans also joined the party. The various schemes that she came up with were schemes that other leaders had not thought of before and were 100 per cent women centric. In particular, the programs announced by him like giving mixers and grinders to family women and bringing napkins to schools attracted the attention of women’s welfare.
Therefore, Jayalalithaa has been the only leader in Tamil Nadu for the last 25 years with a large number of women’s vote bank. After her death in 2016, the AIADMK leadership failed to retain women’s vote by coming up with any special programs for women voters. In this situation, the DMK, which won the last assembly elections and formed the government, planned to attract the women voters who had defected from the AIADMK. As a first step, after coming to power, DMK introduced many schemes for women.
The first signature is for women! – In particular, one of the 5 signatures signed by Chief Minister Stalin when he took the throne was for the scheme of ‘free travel in government buses for all women’. But, ‘only the signature is put; The project has been criticized by the opposition saying that it will take years to implement. But within the next few days, stickers were pasted on government buses saying ‘Free for Women’ and the scheme came into effect.
At the end of one year, the project team conducted a study on the impact of the project. Among them, 48% of the women who can travel through the women’s free bus program are self-employed and 52% are below 40 years of age. It was also revealed that through this scheme, women save Rs.888 per month. Approximately, 47 lakh women avail the free service daily (data provided by the minister). The women who will benefit from this scheme, age wise starts from 18.
50% reservation for women in local government! – The local body elections which were held every 5 years were stopped halfway in 2016 by court orders. After that, rural local government elections were held in some districts in 2019. Thereafter, after Stalin took over as Chief Minister in 2021, he held the urban local body elections in February 2022. 50% reservation was given to women in this election. Out of this, 6,500 women won membership in the forums with 50% reservation in elections for over 12,800 posts. Similarly, in 11 out of 21 Municipal Corporations including Chennai, reservation was followed and women were appointed as mayors. As a result, women’s representation in politics has increased.
Innovation Girl Project! – This innovative girl scheme is to provide Rs.1,000 per month to female students studying in government schools from 6th to 12th standard and pursuing higher education and technical studies in Tamil Nadu. It was launched last year 2022. The scheme is said to have been introduced to prevent girls from dropping out of higher education.
In the last year’s budget, the IT and Digital Services Department’s policy brief stated that 2,02,824 girl students have benefited within a year of the scheme’s inception. In particular, the data revealed that after a gap of 2 to 8 years, about 14,758 female students have joined various higher education institutions.
Women’s Rights Scheme! – Ever since the DMK came to power, the Women’s Entitlement Scheme has been the most awaited project. It was mentioned in the election promise that a scheme will be started to provide Rs.1,000 per month to all the heads of households. In this situation, two years after coming to power, this project was started from September 2023. 1 crore 13 lakh 85 thousand women benefited from this every month. Women above 21 years of age are benefited by this scheme.
State women’s policy! – In the cabinet meeting held on January 23, the state women’s policy has also been approved by the cabinet. In 2001, the Union Government came up with the Women’s Policy. Now after 23 years the State Women’s Policy Scheme has been brought in Tamil Nadu. In this scheme, emphasis is placed on the advancement of women such as increasing employment opportunities for women, self-defense for women, giving importance to the differently abled, making education, health skills development and training easily available to women.
Will DMK target women vote? – The Election Commission of Tamil Nadu released the finalized voter list in Tamil Nadu on 22nd. There are a total of 6.19 crore voters in Tamil Nadu. There are 3 crore 14 lakh 85 thousand 724 women voters in it. The number of women voters is more than 10 lakhs more than men. Newly added women voters are 2 lakh 50 thousand. Therefore, DMK’s schemes for women are predicted to increase the votes of women.
Speaking to Minister of Social Welfare and Rights Department Geeta Jeevan about this, “Dawn journey has been started and excellent programs like innovation women project and entitlement amount for heads of families are being implemented. Therefore, not only in the upcoming elections, but in all future elections, women’s support is for the DMK party,” he said.
Why is DMK giving importance to women? – ‘The image of DMK as an anti-women party was among the people, especially among the women. The reason for that has to be looked back a few years. In 1989, when the DMK was the ruling party, it was alleged that Jayalalithaa, who was the leader of the opposition in the assembly, was insulted by pulling her saree. DMK has come under criticism as a party that is not safe for women. That criticism never left the DMK.
During the winter session of Parliament in August last year, members of the DMK raised questions about the nudification of women in Manipur. Responding to that, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, ‘Don’t forget that Jayalalithaa’s saree was pulled in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 1989 and the DMK laughed at it’.
In this way, DMK has been heavily branded as a ‘party without protection for women’.
Similarly, AIADMK adopted the name of ‘Women’s Party’ because the woman leader Jayalalithaa remained in Tamil Nadu for 25 years. So, DMK is trying to change the mindset of the people. Therefore, DMK has been developing and implementing programs for women that will stand the test of time. As a result, it is said that the DMK has gained a good reputation among the new women voters.
Especially, among women, an alternative view has been developing for the past two years. If a program is introduced, what is the level of utilization of the program? How it is used is important. In that way, DMK has programs that people can use and feel on a daily basis. There is no need to see this only as vote politics. Not to be overlooked is social welfare. Therefore, political observers say that DMK has scored well among women.
However, the DMK reduced the number based on merit after saying in the election promise that ‘all daughters will be given their rights’. Despite those qualifications, many poor women were criticized for being left out of the scheme.
Apart from that, Minister Ponmudi, who is one of the senior leaders of DMK, said on the stage that women traveling in free bus are traveling by bus in OC. Moreover, the DMK has suffered a slippage in the welfare of women as a young girl was tortured in the house of a DMK MLA in Pallavaram.
In terms of elections, parties are making many strategies to attract women votes. It is seen that DMK is slightly ahead. But it remains to be seen whether this will be reflected in the elections for sure.