India legally allows anyone over 14 to work. But, if they can work, can’t they vote?
Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha in April-May would truly be historic: Never, in living memory, have so many men and women been given the right to decide who should rule them. Worse, never have so many people been kept out of the election process, in a democracy, despite universal suffrage.
More than a whopping 30 crore people— as much as the total population of the United States — would not be eligible to vote in the next general elections. This is because a person has to achieve the age of 18 years to vote in India.
But is that fair?
The surge of population in the past two decades—thanks to improved medical facilities and ineffective family planning programmes— makes India not only home to world’s youngest population, but also leaves it in a skewed situation in which over 30 per cent of its citizens are ineligible to vote.
It is an exceptional situation in any democracy in the world, one which actually demands a fresh debate on the voting age. India legally allows anyone over 14 to work, thus giving him legal right to decide on a host of issues such as personal finances, family support, upbringing of siblings, banking etc. Shouldn’t they have the right to decide who should rule them?
Not that there is no precedent in the rest of the world. Even though it doesn’t face such a huge surge of youngsters, Britain has been fiercely debating the need for lowering the voting age to 16 years. In countries such as Brazil, Austria, Nicaragua, the lowest voting age is 16 years. In Indonesia, North Korea and East Timor, you are can cast your vote if you are 17.
India now has 71.4 crore voters as against 2004’s 67.1 crore, which means there are 4.3 crore new voters in this year’s elections. Of them, 24 percent, or 17 crore, are in the age group of 18 and 35.
Though political parties are resorting to a few gimmicks to woo the young voter, they are also convinced that the youth aren’t really such an effective vote bank.
They would actually be divided and voting along the lines of caste, religion, education and others. But if the Indian young voters were to vote as a single block, they would out vote the Congress — last election’s biggest winner — two times over. The Congress got just over 10 crore votes in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
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