Voices of Gujarat: What Will the Women of Gujarat Vote For?

48% of Gujarat’s voters are women. What’s on their minds?

What will decide the vote of women this Gujarat assembly election?

(Photo: The Quint)

A whopping 48 percent of the voters in Gujarat this assembly election are women. But what will they base their vote on? The Quint travelled the length and breadth of the state to find out.

Health, Education or Lack of Jobs?

Sonal Joshi, a 39-year-old advocate, is concerned that none of the political parties care about the aam junta of the state. “All people are talking about is what Hardik Patel is doing or what Rahul Gandhi is up to or the number of rallies that Modi is doing. Nobody is bothered about Gujarat's citizens,” the Ahmedabad resident says.

Many in the state are miffed with the promised idea of vikas and the shrinking freedom of speech.

This time, I’ll certainly not vote for vikas. I’m fed up of dealing with the effects of note ban. When it was announced, we would go stand in line and face inconvenience. There was a lot of tension. What has vikas done today?

Chandrika Patel, 40-year-old homemaker

Another pressing issue in the state for the women is the lack of jobs. “If I talk about the job market in Ahmedabad, I'd say that everybody above the age of 18 is willing to work. Girls are very interested in working but the job market hasn't improved in the last decade. In fact, it's become worse. There are no jobs. A lot of the intelligent workforce is just sitting idle,” laments 36-year-old Shweta Goyal.

For Krutika, the state of health and education in Gujarat is also a major concern. “The socio-cultural development index in Gujarat is not up to the mark. A number of women are suffering from anemia and malnutrition. But these issues don’t get their due attention because of the other political and civic issues,” says the 27-year-old entrepreneur.

But despite the issues in the state, there are many who continue to support the BJP and the Modi government for what they’ve done so far.

Modi ji has done a lot for women with ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. I didn’t see so much work under Congress, but under Modiji, Gujarat has seen a lot of progress. I think Modiji also tries hard to represent our country well.

Vipula Patel, 45-year-old homemaker

Video Producer: Hansa Malhotra
Video Editor: Md Irshad Alam

(Voices of Gujarat: Tired of listening to netas make promises? As Gujarat goes to polls, The Quint wants to listen to the real voices of Gujarat – the voters. Tell us what issues matter to you this election season. Send in your videos to [e-mail] or WhatsApp @ [phone]. )