New Delhi: With less than a year to go for the 2019 general elections, all political parties are gearing up for the next round of hectic election campaigning, hoping to bag the maximum number of seats in the Lok Sabha. One segment of the electorate all parties have set their sights on are the first-time voters, whose numbers are going to go up to a whopping 13.3 crore – twice the size of France’s population – by the time the next general polls arrive.Given this demographic tilt, it is not surprising that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his 2017 Independence Day speech, had especially invoked this electoral constituency. “January 1, 2018 will not be an ordinary day – those born in this century will start turning 18. They are bhagya vidhatas of our nation,” said Modi.A little over 15% of the total population of voters in the country, first-time voters seem to be holding the keys to the making and unmaking of political parties’ electoral destinies. However, to take advantage of this privileged position, the youth need to show up and vote. So far, like in most other places in the world, voter turnout among the young in India has remained disappointing.While the overall voter turnout also may not be worth celebrating, young voters’ turnout has been five to six percentage points lower than the average turnout since 1996.As a recent Indian Express report showed, by April, less than 30% in the age group of 18-19 years were enrolled as voters in a majority of states. It remains to be seen how many in this age bracket (about 4.85 crore in population) would make it to the polling booths next year (or this year in case of early elections).Why do the young not vote?To understand why the youth, especially the urban youth, are so disengaged from the nation’s politics and governance, it seemed fit to speak to a microcosm of this age group in New Delhi, the epicentre of political action in the country.Speaking to a diverse young crowd in the capital, the statistics about voter turnout somehow seem to be exaggerated. Though a few did get embarrassed and refused even to talk as soon as politics was mentioned – they claimed they didn’t know much about it – most said that they definitely intended to vote in the elections.On probing a little further, it turned out, however, that their motivations were a little different than what one would expect.Sandeep Mandal (18), is pursuing a BA from Delhi University (DU) – School of Open Learning. He remarked, “I don’t have a voter card. But I will get it made. I want to see how to vote at least once, for the experience.” His friend Aadil Zaidi (21) said that he “liked” voting. But, he “voted for whatever symbol” he “liked” in the 2015 Delhi elections. He admitted he didn’t keep up with current affairs and would vote for whoever his family is voting for.A large section of the youth completes their school education at the age of 18 and moves to different cities to pursue higher education or in search of jobs. Most of them are neither able to go back to their home to get themselves enrolled to vote nor to vote in the elections if they are even registered.While talking to them, one would observe that most do not know that they could register themselves in the city of their educational institute if they provided a certificate for the same. Despite the provision of e-registering and the plethora of information available online, there is widespread misinformation regarding the electoral process – how long one needs to reside at one place; what works as a proof of residence; how one needs to register to vote.There have been many efforts from different government and non-government bodies to combat ignorance and apathy among young voters. Credit: PTIVanshika Rai (22) from Meerut recently completed her studies in Rajasthan. She cited similar reasons to explain why she was still not enrolled. She did want to vote in 2019, however, and said it would only be possible because she was planning to stay at her home for some time anyway.Prerna Vats (18), another student of DU, said that she wanted to vote and would go back to her home in Panipat in her next vacations to get herself registered. On being asked if she would be able to vote in case her classes were going on during elections, she said she would never miss her classes to vote.Samidha Kalia (20), a student of Lady Shri Ram College and the daughter of an army officer, claimed that she was certain that she needed to stay at a place for five years and provide the proof of residence in order to exercise her right to vote.Initiatives to increase voter turnoutThe truth is that there have been many efforts from different government and non-government bodies to combat this ignorance and apathy among voters.The Election Commission of India (ECI), in a first-of-its-kind initiative in 2017, collaborated with Facebook to start sending ‘voter registration reminder’ to eligible voters on the social media platform. The reminder, sent in 13 Indian languages, intended to drive first-time voters to the national voters’ services portal which would guide them through the registration process.ECI-Facebook collaboration. Credit: PIBIn January, the ECI in Mumbai also launched a drive to promote Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs) in schools and colleges in the city. So far, 2,500 institutions are known to have set up such clubs. These clubs, supervised by a teacher – who is trained by election officers at the district level – would work as extra-curricular bodies just like National Cadet Corps.The ECI has also started organising voter enrolment programmes in junior and senior colleges by appointing teachers as campus ambassadors. A senior officer from the ECI’s state wing said, “We have only 12 lakh youngsters between 18 and 19 years registered against a population of about 41 lakh. By setting up ELCs in schools and colleges, we want the number of new voters to rise”.Many local bodies across the country also work tirelessly round the year to tap future voters and raise awareness among youngsters.With the recent assembly elections, 2019 Lok Sabha elections and 2020 BBMP elections looming on the horizon, Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) – an organisation involved in promoting good governance practices and policies, decided to launch a Participatory Democracy Programme to strengthen political engagement and encourage greater citizen partnership in their state. B.PAC organised campaigns like ‘One Million New Votes Campaign’, ‘Know your candidate’ and ‘Vote Bengaluru’ as part of ‘Election Habba’ – a festival of democracy – to create awareness about the electoral process, increase voter enrolment and maximise voter participation during elections.The voter turnout in the recent elections was 72.36%, an improvement over 65% and 71.4% respectively during the 2008 and 2013 assembly elections.Possibility of mandatory votingDespite all these efforts, a turnout as high as even 90% is a distant dream if there is no incentive or penalisation associated with voting. A little over a dozen democracies in the world, including Australia and Singapore, implement and enforce mandatory voting for the same. Citizens who fail to enrol or vote in these countries are often fined, or penalised in other ways.However, according to most constitutional experts in India and the world, compulsory voting infringes on the fundamental right to speech, as it also includes the freedom not to speak.In 2014, when Gujarat became the first state in India to make voting compulsory in local polls, the Gujarat high court stayed the law’s implementation after a lawyer filed a PIL, citing the violation of Article 19(1)(A) of the Constitution. Most found that the law was not only impractical and impossible to implement in a country like India, but also unconstitutional.Following the same logic, the ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option had been included in the Indian electoral system in 2013 to give voters an option to abstain from voting. The move also intended to increase the voter turnout, though there is not enough evidence to support that it succeeded and many believe that NOTA is just equivalent to not turning up for the elections.It is true that NOTA in India does not translate into the ‘right to reject’ as the candidate with the maximum votes still win the election, irrespective of the number of NOTA votes polled.NOTA was introduced in India following the 2013 Supreme Court directive in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India judgment. Credit: PTIIt would be wrong, however, to think that such votes do not make a difference. There have been innumerable instances where the number of NOTA votes polled in a constituency was larger than the winning margin. Thus, NOTA votes did sway those election results, assuming a majority of NOTA voters would have chosen one or the other candidate in the absence of the option.One could also argue now that with NOTA, mandatory voting would not violate voters’ ‘right to silence’ because voters would no longer be compelled to support any candidate and only obliged to turn up.But, the core of the issue is that there would be no point forcing the least engaged and least informed to vote anyway as they make a choice only on the basis of hearsay or their vague understanding of the political system and parties – like Himanshu Yadav (20), a student of Shyam Lal College, puts it – 90% of his classmates would vote only as part of the trend and for whoever they hear the most about from others.While he, being a commerce student, made some compelling arguments against many policies like demonetisation by the current government, he was befuddled on being asked if he knew who he would vote for.He said ultimately everybody was just the same. It would not matter.The ground reality is that the young can only change the landscape of Indian politics if we drive home the awareness, give youngsters more to care about and make them believe that they are actually the ‘bhagya vidhatas’ who need to take this responsibility – which has come with their great power – more seriously.Khushboo Kumari has a BTech in information technology and is pursuing an MBA in marketing from MICA, Ahmedabad. She is a former intern at The Wire.