Social Media Inclusion and Political Participation of Women in Nawanshahr Block of S.B.S Nagar District, Punjab

Abstract

In a democratic government, every citizen directly or indirectly participates in decision-making. Social media is an effective instrument of political communication and moulding public opinion. Social media have brought changes to traditional campaign strategies of political parties. It provides a platform for politicians and candidates to convey their political policies and programs effectively to a large number of voters in less time. Women’s political engagement is an essential criterion for the success of a democratic system. Social media facilitate the inclusion of women in political activities.This study investigates the effect of social media inclusion on women’s political participation in the Nawanshahr block of S.B.S Nagar district of Punjab. It is mainly based upon the Primary data collected from 65 respondents consisting of urban and rural females through Google form. This study has revealed that 95.4% of women respondents use various social media platforms, but most of them neither visited the website of any political party nor shared or liked any political information. The majority of female students between the age group of 15-29 years utilize social media and engage in online political activities. 35.5% of female respondents do not have any interest in politics. It was found that social media is an effective tool to measure the performance of political parties.