India is celebrating the fourth National Voters Day today. Despite a good turnout in voting in recent elections, India has to go a long way.
The leading market research agency Ipsos conducted a survey for the Times of India. More than 800 people from eight metropolitan cities were interviewed face-to-face between Dec 27, 2013 and Jan 2, 2014 as per a report published in the Times of India.
The survey finds Indian youth want to vote. But they can’t because of the cumbersome and complicated voter registration process. More than 40% of respondents in the age group of 18 and 29 years have not yet registered themselves as voters. In Delhi, Kolkata and Pune the figure stands at nearly 50%. However, youth in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad youth is politically conscious with voter registration ranging between 83 and 93%. Out of the registered voters, about 87% have exercised their franchise. In Delhi, 62% feel the process of voter registration is too tedious, followed by Bangalore with 53%.
An equally significant number could not find their names on the voters’ list. Almost a quarter of the unregistered voters
say they had moved to a new house and could not get their verification done. Awareness about the procedure is also an
issue. Many registered voters also complain that they do not find their name in the voters list and are deprived of voting even though they wish to caste their vote.
Other important reasons are they feel their votes may not make any significant difference, or the candidates are
below expectations. Perhaps political parties need to think about this. About 25% voters surveyed in Bangalore and 14% in Hyderabad say they don’t plan to vote in elections. On the positive side, only 8% of the registered voters say they would not vote.
However, will the ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) option serve them? Despite being on the ballot, NOTA has not been attached value in terms of election. In other words, if highest number of voters push the NOTA button, the election will not happen again. The candidate with second highest number of votes will be declared winner. So how does NOTA help? You have to wait and watch.
