At the fore on social and economic fronts, women are in the backseat when it comes to political representation.

Grace Jajo’s voice first choked and then she broke into tears, a microphone in her hand, addressing a gathering at Manipur Press Club in Imphal, the capital of the northeast Indian state. It was February 6, three weeks before the first of the two-phase election in Manipur was scheduled.

The YWCA in collaboration with the Women Working Group on women’s peace and security has ended a three-day workshop here, geared at preparing women to participate in the 2023 Presidential and general elections as a means of breaking the barriers of women’s participation in national decision making.

In the recently concluded single-phase Uttarakhand election women voters outnumbered men by more than 4 per cent. Goa had the highest voters overall.

New Gallup polling data shows 7.1 percent of the U.S. population identifies as LGBTQ – up from 5.6 percent in 2020. The new data, released yesterday, further reveals the enormous gap in LGBTQ elected representation in the U.S., where just 0.2 percent of elected positions are held by LGBTQ people. Currently, there are only 1,021 LGBTQ elected officials serving nationwide.