Female registrations

Nearly 10 million women have been added to the electoral rolls since the 2018 general elections

Earlier this week, Nadra revealed that nearly 10 million women have been added to the electoral rolls since the 2018 general election. The total number of female registered voters is now 56.95 million. Given that Pakistan has consistently ranked poorly on global gender gap indices over the years, this is a monumental step for improving gender parity. Nadra’s efforts have reduced the overall gender gap by 8.9% and it is now focusing on the districts of Balochistan and K-P where the gap is over 10%.

Removing barriers and improving women’s access to the electoral process will increase women’s engagement in the political process. Outreach programmes, awareness campaigns, demonstrations, etc. will not be limited to a few urban women and instead more women will be accommodated. In the past, many issues particularly those faced by women have been side-lined due to the inability of political representatives to resonate with them. With a wider female vote bank, these issues will be brought forward and necessary policy frameworks will be adopted to address these issues.

Nadra has established 19 female-only registration centres and deployed 10 mobile registration vans to increase the registration of unregistered women in Pakistan along with other extensive measures to reach women in remote areas. Adding marginalised and underprivileged women to the electoral rolls will induce a sense of empowerment and agency among the female population. It will increase representation and can act as a stepping-stone in improving women’s access to different social and economic opportunities as well. Besides praising Nadra’s policy reforms, it is worth recognising that this has reignited hope that the country is on the right track to bridging the gender gap and empowering women.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2022.

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