Women participation

In the election process of J&K State there is very little participation of women in the elections as candidates. Most of the parties have not given mandates to the women and have preferred men over them. Even at the gross root levels, the women participation is not healthy in the politics of J&K State.

Inspite of the fact that former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has announced that she will fight from Anantnag parliamentary segment, there is very less participation of women in the coming Lok Sabha elections in entire Jammu and Kashmir State.

According to the data with State Election Department, out of 62 candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the Lok Sabha poll in J&K so far, there are only two women in the fray. Among them, one Kanta Andhota has withdrawn her nomination from Jammu Poonch constituency thus keeping only Meenakshi as independent candidate from Udhampur parliamentary segment.

National Conference has nominated Dr Farooq Abdullah as its candidate for the Srinagar Parliamentary segment and avoided giving mandate to their former MLA from Habba Kadal Shamima Firdous.

In Kashmir Valley already there is negligible presence of women in the electoral politics and even for the urban body and panchayat elections, the participation was not healthy.

In Jammu region, though women have been participating on the ground in different political activities, but when it comes to giving mandates, they are being ignored. Women have been on forefront in Jammu, but most of the political parties including BJP and Congress ignore us when it comes to giving mandates.