India’s Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar last week flagged the problem of voter apathy, specifically pointing at urban voters and youth. With Karnataka headed for Assembly polls in May, the ECI organised an election hackathon in Bengaluru called ‘Election 2023’ along with various stakeholders, including the government, industry, academia and civil society. It aimed at creating a platform for exchanging ideas and collaboration among stakeholders to improve the electoral process and find solutions to voter apathy. Disillusionment with elections, lack of political interest, ignorance about candidates/political parties and their ideologies, a degree of hopelessness, and indifference are blamed for this apathy.
The country’s voting percentage in the 1952 general elections was 45.7%. It was 67.40% in 2019. In this period, the population grew from 37.29 crore to 138.31 crore. The massive population boom should have seen a much higher voting percentage considering the literacy rate, too, rose from 18.33% in 1952 to 77% now. But thanks to the persisting apathy, that hasn’t happened.
India’s IT Capital, Bengaluru, is an example. The city saw the voting percentage fall in all four zones between 2013 and 2018. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)(South) fell from 55.04% in the 2013 polls to 51.98% in 2018; BBMP (North) from 56.58% to 53.47%, BBMP (Central) from 57.71% to 55.18%, and Bengaluru Urban from 62.03% to 57%. But the voting percentage in 2018 was 72.13%—the highest in Karnataka since 1952. Gujarat, too, witnessed a lower urban voter turnout in December 2022 compared to 2017, while urban Himachal Pradesh recorded ten percentage points lower than the state’s average voting percentage of 75.6%.
The ECI, for the first time in India, has announced the “vote from home” initiative for 12.15 lakh people aged 80 and above, and for 5.5 lakh physically challenged persons across the state. EC officials will visit the residences of those opting to vote from home to oversee the registration and voting process, which will be videographed. Political parties and candidates will be intimated about the home voters for transparency while ensuring secrecy when they cast their votes. Ideally, the same should be offered to a larger section of voters. That could encourage more people to vote. But to achieve this, more political awareness and a change in perception will be needed.