Election Educators Face Hurdles Reaching Women Voters, Especially in Marginalized Communities

Kathmandu. Rupa Devkota, a voter education volunteer from Saptakoshi Municipality-2 in Saptari, reached a Musahar settlement early last Friday morning with the aim of teaching voter education. Despite arriving early, most huts in the settlement were locked.

After that, she turned towards another settlement from there. However, she plans to visit that settlement at least once more. She mentions that teaching voter education to women voters is easier in other communities, but it is not as easy in the Musahar settlement. She said, "I went early in the morning thinking people might not be available during the day, but it turns out everyone leaves for labor early in the morning."

Devkota, who is also a teacher, stated that she provides voter education to Musahar community women she meets on the road. However, she says that due to the pressure of work, they do not pay attention and are unwilling to listen or learn about voter education. "I tried to teach the sample voting process to one or two women I met on the road, but I feel I must visit the settlement again. The problem is not finding people when I go to the settlement," she said.

Devkota, who also gained experience as a voter education volunteer in the previous House of Representatives elections, mentioned that even those who know how to stamp the sample ballot paper often have their votes invalidated because they do not know how to fold the ballot paper. Therefore, she emphasized teaching the folding technique.

Parbati Paneru, a voter education volunteer from Parshuram Municipality-3 in Dadeldhura district, is currently reaching women voters with ballot papers everywhere, sometimes in the fields and sometimes in the threshing grounds. Although she wishes to gather women voters in one place to teach voter education in groups, her experience shows this is not possible. "Since they are busy with grass cutting and farming, I am trying to provide voter education wherever they are," she said, "Sometimes I have to stop them on the road to teach them about voter education."

According to her, she can gather a maximum of 10 people in the village, and in some cases, it is difficult to find even one or two. Nevertheless, she mentioned that she has been going door-to-door to provide voter education. She stated that initially, they responded that they understood all the voting procedures, but they make mistakes when asked to fold the sample ballot paper. Paneru said that subsequently, she teaches most of them how to fold the ballot paper.

According to Bhawani Dutt Bhatt, the voter education volunteer coordinator at the Dadeldhura District Election Office, volunteers have been mobilized in 52 wards of the district. Except for one male volunteer, all others are female.

The Election Commission has emphasized voter education to reduce the rate of invalid votes in the upcoming House of Representatives elections. Election Commission Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai stated that analysis of invalid votes from past elections showed a higher rate of invalid votes in areas with lower female literacy, necessitating special attention to voter education for women voters.

Election Commission's Joint Secretary Rajendra KC estimated that a higher percentage of invalid votes comes from women voters in areas with lower female literacy. According to him, based on the 2078 BS census data, Madhesh Province has the lowest female literacy rate at 54.70 percent. Based on this data, the percentage of invalid votes in the 2074 BS and previous elections in that province was 5.46 percent higher compared to other provinces.

Similarly, Sudurpashchim Province has a female literacy rate of 65.50 percent. The rate of invalid votes in Sudurpashchim was 5.70 percent, relative to the national average invalid vote ratio. Bagmati Province has the highest female literacy rate at 75.20 percent. Accordingly, the invalid vote rate was the lowest at 4.16 percent. Joint Secretary KC also mentioned that Gandaki Province has a female literacy rate of 73.80 percent, and the invalid vote percentage was comparatively lower at 4.63 percent.

For the House of Representatives election scheduled for this coming Falgun 21, a total of 18,903,689 voters are registered. Among them, 9,240,013 are women, and 9,663,358 are men. There are 200 voters listed under 'other'. Compared to the voters in the 2079 BS election, there has been an increase of 914,121 voters this year.