by NEW DELHI: The number of female electors in the country has witnessed a sharper rise of 5.1% over the past three years, from 43.8 crore in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to 46.1 crore now, as compared to the 3.6% increase in male voters from 47.3 crore to 49 crore during the same period.
Chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra, in a televised address on the eve of National Voters Day celebrated each year on January 25, said the strength of the total electorate in the country, as of today, stood at 95.1 crore. Compared to 91.2 crore eligible electors at the time of 2019 general election to the Lok Sabha, this translates into an approximate 4.3% increase.
Chandra said that among the 95.1 crore voters as on date, 49 crore were male and 46.1 crore female, 1.9 crore senior citizens above 80 years of age, 81.4 lakh persons with disabilities and 19.2 lakh from the services.
He added that the number of newly-registered voters as on date stood at 1.4 crore, as compared to 1.5 crore voters aged between 18 and 19 years who were eligible to vote for the first time in 2019 Lok Sabha poll. The CEC further said that nearly 25 lakh new voters are eligible to vote in the current assembly polls in the states of UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.
Incidentally, the commission has been relentlessly working to push up the enrolment of female voters who are old enough to exercise their franchise but were not yet registered in the rolls. Even ahead of announcing the current assembly polls in five states, the EC had undertaken a special exercise to identify areas with less female voter enrollment in states like UP and reached out to them through local staff including Asha workers to motivate them to come forward and register themselves as voters.
Chandra said that the government recently amended Representation of the People Act to allow new voters to enroll on four different dates in a year against a single date earlier.
Chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra, in a televised address on the eve of National Voters Day celebrated each year on January 25, said the strength of the total electorate in the country, as of today, stood at 95.1 crore. Compared to 91.2 crore eligible electors at the time of 2019 general election to the Lok Sabha, this translates into an approximate 4.3% increase.
Chandra said that among the 95.1 crore voters as on date, 49 crore were male and 46.1 crore female, 1.9 crore senior citizens above 80 years of age, 81.4 lakh persons with disabilities and 19.2 lakh from the services.
He added that the number of newly-registered voters as on date stood at 1.4 crore, as compared to 1.5 crore voters aged between 18 and 19 years who were eligible to vote for the first time in 2019 Lok Sabha poll. The CEC further said that nearly 25 lakh new voters are eligible to vote in the current assembly polls in the states of UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.
Incidentally, the commission has been relentlessly working to push up the enrolment of female voters who are old enough to exercise their franchise but were not yet registered in the rolls. Even ahead of announcing the current assembly polls in five states, the EC had undertaken a special exercise to identify areas with less female voter enrollment in states like UP and reached out to them through local staff including Asha workers to motivate them to come forward and register themselves as voters.
Chandra said that the government recently amended Representation of the People Act to allow new voters to enroll on four different dates in a year against a single date earlier.
