Dehradun. Rudraprayag is the only district in Uttarakhand where women voters outnumber men in the upcoming elections to the three-tier Panchayati Raj bodies. The Election Commission data for the 12 districts where the panchayat elections will be held shows that out of a total of 43,11,423 voters in these districts, there are 21,05,093 female voters and 22,06,330 voters.
Incidentally, male voters outnumber female voters in all districts. In Rudraprayag, the small hill district, however, the trend is reversed as there are 97,708 female voters in this district compared to 96,985 male voters. They will elect 336 village heads, 117 members of the block panchayat and 18 zilla panchayat members.
In Pithoragarh district, there is very little difference between the number of male and female voters. There are 1,61,888 female voters as compared to 1,62,428 male voters.
It is pertinent to mention here that in Uttarakhand, there is a provision of 50 percent reservation for women at every level of Panchayati Raj bodies. The state was incidentally the first place to implement 50 percent reservation for women at all levels in Panchayati Raj in the year 2008.