Less vote, More don't!

Voting Shrinkages

By Harish Bijoor


Every progressive Lok Sabha election has seen a drop in percentages of people voting. From the corpus of eligible voters, the drop rates, if looked at from the point of view of the first election to the last one (14th in the series) concluded in 2004, the drop numbers look alarming. Alarming enough to wake up a whole new generation of non-voters. Finally.

Look at the numbers first. The first general elections the country went to in 1952 saw a voting percentage of 61.2 per cent. This largely has remained the highest percentile peg number that the Lok Sabha elections has attracted in the country. This simply means that out of every ten eligible voters, 6 voted. 4 did not.

In an era when accessibility to the polling booth was a moot point to address, and in an era when elections were new to the country, this was acceptable. Also in an era when the basic issues of food clothing and shelter were larger than life, anything was acceptable.

As the years passed by, and as India’s robust democracy became stronger and stronger, one expected a more robust participation in the electoral politics of the country by its citizenry. Sadly, this is not to be. Look at the numbers again. Numbers don’t lie. They tell a story. A story of gradual neglect of a right and a duty.

While the general elections of 1957 had larger numbers turning out to vote (62.2 per cent), subsequent elections have seen a trickle-out effect in the electorate at large. The 1962 general elections saw 55.42 per cent of the people vote. And then began the yo-yo effect. This yo-yo moved from 55 per cent to 61 per cent every alternate year. Even this was acceptable.

And then the yo-yo broke its pattern. In the last general elections of 2004 only 48.74 per cent of the people voted. For the first time in our electoral history we have an adverse voting skew. Less numbers vote and large numbers don’t. The fall-off in voting percentile numbers from 1999 to 2004 was a large 11.25 per cent. A tragic fall.

Why don’t people vote then? Why are lesser and lesser numbers of people voting with every progressive general election?

Voter apathy is a big disease then. As the nation gets younger and younger in its demographic profile, there is a distancing of politics from the young of this nation. Younger people have continuously and regressively believed that politics is the profession and task of the older person. And so being the case, the younger person has even desisted from exercising his right. A total abdication of the process has resulted in the vote shares among the young whittling away.

The first general election saw passion. Subsequent sets of elections have witnessed passion that is lesser and lesser in the participative culture of politics and governance. When there is no one big issue to unite and pull the people out for a referendum, elections are seen to be mundane and repetitive. A task not as important to participate in.

If the voting numbers are to show an impressive upsurge and if our democracy is to emerge as a truly robust one with mass participation, three segments of the stake-holders of India need to perk up on Election Day. The first is the youth of the nation. 54 per of the population of our country is below the age of 25. This segment needs to show responsibility, passion and a positive surge to vote. The second stake-holder is the woman at large. Normally, in every election we have had, women turn-out at the husting is approximately 8 per cent less than men. If this was to be corrected for a start, we will have a larger participation for sure in this democratic exercise.

And the final stake-holder sub-segment. The educated and the employed. It is important for this segment to perk up and vote. Using a voting day holiday to take off on that short-break vacation is not an option that can be exercised anymore.

If each of these three segments perk up and vote, expect a robust jump from our numbers which have crawled below the Plimsoll line of acceptance altogether. Only a 48 per cent participation in the electoral politics of India is not an acceptable number anymore.

Harish Bijoor is a Brand and Political strategy specialist.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
Mobile: 0 98440 83491