Karnataka’s voter gender gap flips as women take 3.7 lakh lead over men amidst SIR

Women have moved ahead of men in Karnataka’s electoral rolls by nearly 3.7 lakh, but the figures leave a key question unanswered: what explains the reversal in a state where men have historically outnumbered women among registered voters? The latest provisional data, compiled by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Karnataka up to October 16, show 2.28 crore women electors and 2.25 crore men, according to a report by the Times of India.

The difference is striking, but its cause cannot yet be established from the available numbers. Prof CM Lakshmana of the Population Research Centre at the Institute for Social and Economic Change cautioned against drawing conclusions without more detailed data.

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“Based on Census data, the adult male-female ratio in recent years is nearly equal, but men outnumber women. So it is surprising to find more female electors than male. It would be difficult to make assessments without granular data,” he told ToI.

The state’s electorate stands at 4.5 crore, including 2,860 third-gender voters. The figures come as Karnataka approaches the final stages of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with October 22 set as the deadline to dispose of claims and objections. The final electoral roll is scheduled for October 27.

A statewide shift, but not in every district

The statewide lead for women masks a more divided picture on the ground. Of the 34 districts covered in the CEO’s release, women outnumber men in 25. Men remain ahead in the other nine.

Mysuru has the widest gap in favour of women, with 49,416 more female than male electors. BBMP North follows with a difference of 48,394. The balance runs the other way in Bidar, where men lead by 42,269, and Vijayapura, where their advantage stands at 30,353.

The district-level variation makes it difficult to treat the statewide result as a uniform shift across Karnataka. The figures establish where women have taken the lead, but do not, by themselves, explain why the electoral balance differs from one district to another.

CEO Anbu Kumar V said the administration had received a substantial number of applications from people seeking inclusion in the rolls. “We’ve made every effort to ensure no eligible voter misses an opportunity to get onto the rolls. We got 10 lakh new Form 6 applications, out of which more than 7.8 lakh were before Sept 23. All those applications need to be cleared; once all the applications are cleared, we’ll get a clear picture,” he told ToI.

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An electoral first against a long historical pattern

The latest figures depart from the pattern seen in Karnataka’s available historical electoral data. An analysis of Election Commission of India figures shows men outnumbered women in every Assembly election year from 1962 through 2023 for which a gender-wise breakdown was available.

The 1957 election data recorded the overall electorate but did not separately enumerate male and female voters. That leaves 1962 as the earliest year in the available series in which the two groups can be compared directly.

Whether the current gap persists after the revision process is completed will become clearer with the publication of the final roll. Until then, the October 16 figures offer a snapshot of the electorate rather than a definitive explanation of the change.

Officials race to clear the remaining cases

The revision exercise has involved a large volume of notices and applications. By October 16, authorities had completed hearings in 43,63,459 of the 43,82,824 notices generated and delivered across the state. That put the completion rate at 99.6%, leaving 19,365 cases pending.

Gulbarga accounted for the largest share of pending hearings, with 8,224 cases and 92.21% of hearings completed. The corresponding pending counts were 1,495 in Belgaum and 1,016 in Bengaluru Urban.

Separately, the CEO’s office received 24,46,803 forms relating to electoral roll claims, objections and updates between June 16 and October 15. The submissions comprised 10,07,392 Form 6 applications, 4,777 Form 6A applications, 1,55,109 Form 7 applications and 12,79,525 Form 8 applications.

The October 27 publication will provide the next comprehensive count once the claims-and-objections process is complete. It should also establish whether women retain their lead after the outstanding applications and cases have been dealt with.

(With inputs from ToI)