Involving the Youth in Electoral Process

INVOLVING THE YOUTH IN ELECTORAL PROCESS

Since the youth constitute a large segment of our total population and the general elections are the biggest event for them show their participation in their freedom to exercise choice towards policies through which the country would be guided and major transformations according to their need would take place, the active involvement of youth in the electoral process is very important.

Till the last general elections, it was observed that the young educated Indian youth didn’t show their interest in actual electoral process by their presence at the voting booth but an aggressive voter participation campaign by various new means in the last general election the young voters were really stirred to action. They have not only gone to the voting booths to cast their votes, but many a places they have contested in elections individually, from some party or by constituting their group.

The young India could be seen debating over the policies, suitability of the candidates or the local problems not raised effectively by the political representatives of their area. The increased percentage of young voters, defeat of candidates with criminal background, discussions over the candidates and politics on social networking sites and focus of discussions over development and policies by the youth have shown the change of mind set of the young voters. It shows that the youth has started understanding their role as a catalyst for change. The efforts of Election Commission to involve youth in the electoral process has shown its impact and the awareness generation by the media has also supported it well.

Before I start discussing on my experiences of Involving Youth in the Election Process in Sikkim few things should be clarified first:

• The whole discussion on the topic is based on my experiences of elections specially in Sikkim and the perception may vary from the experiences of other experience holders and accepted concepts and norms about the election;
• The strict guidelines of Election Commission leave a very limited scope for innovations in election and adding on the uniqueness of Sikkim squeezes it to more difficult level;
• The compilation of data related to this topic could not been done effectively because of change in the constituencies after the recent delimitation process.

Sikkim as a small state and a very informal society has a high level of awareness about most of the things. The process of election is not very old in the state as it was introduced only after the merger of the state in India in 1975. However Sikkim is far ahead in voters turn out if compared with many other big states of the country. It has always been over 60% from the very beginning of the election process in the state. But the importance of youth in various developmental affairs is a very recent phenomenon in the state. The involvement of youth in different societal and political affairs has increased enormously in last 10 years. Discussing it point wise following are the characteristics of the involvement of youth in the election process in Sikkim:

• The political parties had already identified the importance of involving youth strength in the election process though it was earlier identified as indicator of muscle power to frighten the opponent. Now the total scenario is changed. In 2007 Panchayat Elections, most of the candidates were comparatively young and more than 50% of the candidates were below or around 40 years of age. In fact the same was the percentage of winning candidates also.
• In 2009 Assembly Elections, the ruling party dropped 75% of sitting MLA and all the new replacements were popular among youth. In fact most of them were below 50 years. All of them won in their respective constituencies.
• The nature of involvement of youth has drastically changed in Sikkim. Earlier strength of youth meant possibility of the violence among different groups. But first time in the General and Assembly Elections 2009 no single incident of violence has been recorded during the elections in Sikkim except one or two incidents of burning of the vehicles. This is a clear indicator of the attitudinal change among the youth in Sikkim and they appear taking politics more seriously.
• The issue of development has always been a prominent issue during elections in Sikkim, but the way it was debated in the last elections and the level of alertness the youth have shown in raising their voice was appreciable. All the candidates were observed convincing the youth about their demands, doubts and aspirations.
• The percentage of voters turn out which was around 78% in the 2004 General and Assembly Elections has increased to 83% in the General and Assembly Elections of 2009.
• Highest voters turn out was observed in the West (87% approx) and North (87% approx) Districts of the state which are of rural background as compared to the other two districts. In fact, the youth has over the years been relegated to emotional appeal to simply vote on specific party lines placing much emphasis on the ‘negatives’ of other political parties. As a result, the youth, more often than not, became instruments of various kinds of carryings-on during elections which sometimes ended up in violence. But in the 2009 elections the youth were specially targeted by the District Administration, the Returning Officers and the Political Parties all over the state to divert their focus on different other important activities to increase voters turn out. The role of Media and EVMs also cannot be denied diverting their attention towards a positive approach.
• A very high level of enthusiasm was seen in the youth for registering their names in the Electoral Roll. Uniqueness of Sikkim is the enthusiasm of the female young voters who also participated with equal enthusiasm in whole election process. The left out youth were seen very keen about their registration. After the registration process the youth helped a lot by convincing more and more people to get their EPIC.
• Keenness of the youth participation could also be perceived by the way they helped people searching their names in the electoral roll during the election. This was self triggered under the impact of the voting campaign by the ECI and the media as this level of enthusiasm among youth was seen first time during the 2009 elections.
• There is no doubt that an all round involvement of youth in the elections of 2009 has played a very important role in increasing voters turn out by more than 5 %.
• For the first time mobile phones and internet were used as a very effective medium for canvassing, though the voters turn out in different districts shows that the traditional way of canvassing and approach is still popular among rural youth.
• The aggressive mass campaigning by the ECI and the Media had an impact over the youth of Sikkim. It actually mobilised them to have a very active participation in the elections.

How did the youth utilized by the office of the RO during elections:

• By engaging them in timely completion of the issue of the EPIC to all the voters. A very good enthusiasm was seen among youth about the registration and EPIC. Many a places the problems regarding the registration process was first reported to the office of the Returning Officer by the enthusiastic youth and Panchayat Members. Few places where technical problem was occurred and the photos were taken second time, the presence of the voters didn’t decrease because of the youth who convinced them to come again for taking photos. This way youth played a very crucial role in the hundred per cent issue of the EPIC to the voters in Sikkim;
• By engaging the youth in the EVM training and awareness generation among the masses. Elections being a periodic political celebration in the state attract attention of the youth in all the way and this initiation of the administration was liked by them very much. Their curiosity about the technical issues including the issue of using new type of EVMs made it easy for the Administration to do so. This actually diverted their attention from being aggressive during the election campaign and making confrontations minimum. The result was the most ever peaceful elections in Sikkim;
• By engaging them in clarifying doubts about the EVMs. There were several rumours regarding the EVMs among the voters and they had become very apprehensive about it. After an incident of fire in the strong room in the East District where the EVMs for training were kept, the rumour was spread very fast. In this situation, apart from the other measures taken by all the ROs, one very effective method of involving youth in the awareness generation was planned. The master trainers were instructed to get hold of the influential people, panchayat members and educated youth of the area belonging to all the parties. The youth were targeted to train about the EVMs to further clarify other people who would easily trust them. This resulted in the highest ever voters turn out;
• By educating them about election procedure, especially the youth belonging to the opposition parties who were apprehensive about the over all process of the election. The candidates were told to come with certain educated youth from their side to define everything, from MCC to the strong room meant for keeping EVMs, the provision of the CCTV cameras and counting etc. This helped a lot in gaining confidence of the people about free and fair elections;
• The youth were used as informers of violation of the MCC. Properly trained educated youth helped clarifying the doubts about the MCC and the result was getting the information even in the midnight meetings also. This actually made all the parties very conscious and serious about following the MCC strictly.

Undoubtedly, the youth in the Indian political system have started being taken more seriously than ever. In Sikkim, the process was started earlier and youth had already taken serious responsibilities through Panchayat Elections 2007 and the recent Assembly Elections have further increased and approved their serious involvement in the political system of the State. They have started taking more serious participation in decision making and formulation of policies through their comparatively young representatives. The educated and better educated youth is all set to take the responsibilities with all enthusiasm and seriousness here and it is being harnessed by the political parties with a very serious approach too.

Aunjaneya K Singh, IAS

District Collector

South Sikkim, Namchi