First Time Voters : “Let us Ask”

Articles

Today’s leaders are involved in a race, a race towards a better India. India is constantly developing and one major advantage it has – Youth. Youth is the future of the nation. The millennials are going to shape the world of tomorrow. It is imperative that the first time voters will be enthusiastic to vote and change the shape of the country. They would be having questions for the leaders who are promising days and nights to bring the change for the better India. Under this light, Student’s Section of INBA has decided to give a platform to all the first time voters of India to any question they want to from any of the leaders of our country.

Change comes with “HOW?”
You can email us your questions at – mz@indianbarassociation.org

The questions we would receive will be posted on our website and we would forward these questions to the respective leaders and publish their response.

With the onset of election season, every political party is gearing up for the battle. Major Key players in the battle are expected to be the first time voters. Every political party in these elections is paying attention to the first time voters and heeding their expectations. Under the light of this popularity of first time voters, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday – 17th January, 2019 released a voter metric for the first time voters in the age group of 18-19.  According to the commission the number of voters in this category is 23.16 million.

The data was analyzed and concluded together with the comparable age data from the 2011 consensus, showing that the voter registration is only 45.87% of the 50.47 million youth falling in the age group of the 18-19 years. Simply put, one in two voters of this age group is not registered to vote. In states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar the same proportion is 37% which is even lower than the national average. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have proven to be integral part of the national elections as together both the states account for 120 seats.

The data has proven very alarming as population of youth in India is immense and their inactivity in choosing their political leaders shows their distrust in the system.

Various initiatives have been taken by the Election Commission to increase the enrollment of voters and the target for this year’s election has been set as 80%. But even after various outreach programmes at massive scale done by ECI the registration of voter has only raised marginally.

The report is being scrutinized by the political parties as they are also focusing on increasing the enrollment of voters. It is evident that due the large scale of youth population, especially of the age group 18-19 years, their votes can prove intrinsic for the election results.  

 Political parties are focusing on the first time voters, but what are first time voters expecting, that is the question everyone should focus on.

Survey: – ‘Questions put forward to the first time voters.’ 

Q.1. In your opinion what shall be the priority of the new government?

Q.2. What are the major changes you would like to see in the governance?

Q.3. Would you like to suggest some changes in the policy of existing government.

Q.4. According to you what should be target of the electing parties.

Naresh Sabharawal, Jeevesh Sabharawal