Data | Nagaland women are socially empowered but underrepresented in politics Premium

Nagaland got its first two women MLAs, with Hekani Jakhalu and Salhoutuonuo Kruse winning from the Dimapur-III and Western Angami, respectively in the 2023 election

Between 2019 and 2021, about 85% of women in Nagaland over the age of 5 had attended school. India’s average was only 72%. Less than 6% of Nagaland women aged 20-24 years, married before turning 18. India’s average was over 23%. Only 29% of Nagaland women were anaemic, while India’s average was double that. Over 99% of married women in Nagaland participated in key household decisions and only about 6% had experienced spousal violence — about five times lower than India’s figure.

And yet, in the 14 Assembly elections conducted between 1964 and 2018, Nagaland has not elected even one woman MLA. In the 2023 election, Nagaland got its first two women MLAs. Hekani Jakhalu and Salhoutuonuo Kruse from the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), won from the Dimapur-III and Western Angami, respectively.

The dearth of women MLAs was not just because they did not win elections, but even among the candidates, representation was poor. The number of women candidates has not crossed six in any of the 14 State polls conducted. In fact, in five elections the number of women candidates was zero. In two elections, it was just one.

Even in 2023, of the 183 candidates in the fray, only four are women. However, in the State, the number of women electors is similar to that of men. Of the 13,17,632 voters, 6,61,489 are men, and 6,56,143 are women. The four women candidates are Hekhani Jakhalu and Salhoutuonuo of the NDPP, Rosy Thompson of the Congress, and Kahuli Sema of the BJP.

In 2018, Awan Konyak of the NDPP narrowly missed making history in 2018 when her Naga People’s Front (NPF) rival defeated her by 905 votes (8%) to bag the Aboi Assembly constituency.

However, notably, way back in 1977, Nagaland had chosen a woman MP; Rano Mese Shazia was elected on a United Democratic Party ticket. Last year, another woman entered Parliament from the State with the BJP nominating S Phangnon Konyak as the Rajya Sabha member from Nagaland.

This trend of being socially empowered but politically underrepresented, can be observed across most of the northeastern States.