India has always believed that everyone is equal. Many nations gave women power to cast their vote much later after their Independence. Contrary to that, India politically empowered everyone at the same time. But as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. The voting right has been misconstrued by many informed citizens. They give voting a miss even after so much awareness. Thankfully, the Election Commission (EC) has a solution to this voter apathy.
EC’s Panacea against Voter apathy
The EC has found a way to solve the problem of voter apathy. It will direct all its local district election officers to ask all government departments, PSUs and private companies to appoint nodal officers. These officers will keep a record of employees who skip voting. As it has been observed, many of the citizens especially in the urban areas construed voting day as a holiday and spent it as a leisure time.
To understand the voter apathy especially in urban areas, let us see the data of last election. Assam’s Dhubri constituency registered the highest turnout with 90.66%, while the urban seat of Srinagar had meagre 14.43 %, which is the lowest turnout.
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In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, around one-third of the registered voters didn’t cast their vote. This is not a good thing as several laws have been made so that employers don’t limit their employees from casting their votes and threaten to cut salaries. As, according to Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, every registered voter has to be granted a paid holiday by their employer, be it private or government. Further, under section 25 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, state and central governments always have to notify polling day as a paid holiday.
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A senior EC official highlighted how the process will work and discourage voter apathy. The Officer said, “The aim is to tackle voter apathy, especially in urban areas. It’s unfortunate if people are availing leave but not casting their vote. No one would like to get named for not voting. We hope the act of being identified and sent for a workshop after being found to have skipped voting will discourage apathy”.
Other Steps to increase Voter Turnout
The EC has also asked its district officers to identify at least five lowest voter turnout booths in every constituency. These officers will analyse the factors for lower voter turnout and take necessary steps to improve it. According to the Indian Express, the EC officer said, “Additionally, we have also directed all district election officers/ returning officers to identify at least five lowest voter turnout booths in each Assembly constituency. They will visit these booths to identify factors for low voting turnout and make targeted interventions to mitigate the factors hampering the voting process”.
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Further, The EC has started a pilot project and decided to set up a committee to explore the possibility of allowing remote voting to migrant workers. If the remote voting project for migrants is implemented, it will drastically improve voter percentage. That is because there are about 10 million migrant workers in India, who work in the unorganised sector. All of them are registered with the government’s e-shram portal.
These proactive and firm stands of the EC will work like a carrot and a stick against all the casual citizens who ignore the very powerful voting rights. This will also help in strengthening our democratic values, and make citizens more vigilant and aware towards their rights and development needs.
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