Kerala: Women-only booths a poll ‘custom’ here

KOCHI: When the state goes to polls Tuesday, 32 polling booths in

Thrissur

and

Ponnani

Lok Sabha constituencies will stick on to the decades-old

practice

of setting up separate polling booths for women.

While there are 20 polling booths exclusively for women in Eriyad panchayat in Kaipamangalam in Thrissur, there are 12

women-only

booths in the coastal belts of Ponnani municipality. Meanwhile, the practice has also led to the setting up of separate polling booths for men in these places.

While officials say such an arrangement was made due to the social conditions during

1950s

, local residents say the move was to encourage voting among women.

“In both the places there was concentration of conservative orthodox

Muslim

community. Women in this community did not want to be frisked by male officials at polling booths and that’s why exclusive booths for women were set up,” said the spokesperson of election commission of Kerala.

“In those days, Muslim women did not even interact with men outside their family or faced them directly. The practice continues as political parties do not want to end the system. We had held a meeting with leaders of various political parties to end this in Ponnani, but they insisted on continuing it saying that it was there for many years,” said a village official in Ponnani.

The total number of female voters in these polling booths in Ponnani are 13,157.

Siddiqe M K, a councillor in Eriyad panchayat said, “It was the landlords here, mostly Muslims, who started this practice. They met the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and demanded separate polling booths for women. The practice still continues,” he said. The panchayat has more than 17,000 women voters and 16,000 male voters.