Last week, Quartz (qz.com) quoted a study by a Harvard researcher and a political scientist at the University of Melbourne as saying that an entire global generation in stable liberal democracies has lost faith in democracy. They have also become more cynical about the value of democracy as a political system, less hopeful that anything they do might influence public policy and more willing to express support for authoritarian alternatives.
According to another national poll in the US just before the recent Presidential elections, only one in five of young adults consider themselves “politically engaged and active.” In the UK, British Social Attitude survey data suggest that only one in 10 of 18–25 year olds are interested in politics.
The situation should have been better in India. After all, with 50 per cent of its population below the age of 30, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw around 150 million new voters, between the ages 18-23. According to data from the Election Commission, almost 90,000 such voters were eligible to vote for the first time in each Lok Sabha constituency. This underlined the importance of the young voter for all parties.
But how many of them actually voted? That can be a tricky question. Anecdotal evidence suggests the number of young people willing to vote has been coming down steadily. According to reports obtained from the national capital’s chief electoral officer, close to half of those aged 18 in Delhi did not enrol themselves to vote in the last Assembly elections. That doesn’t gel with suggestions of growing political awareness and activism among the young. In Delhi, the turnout among young voters (age group 18 to 21) in the last elections was slightly above 40 per cent. And, Delhi is supposed to have the more politically conscious electorate. This makes it clear that the new avatar of social media, which is now widely regarded as an effective political tool for mobilising the young population, isn’t translating into more footfalls in the polling booths.
Here’s an example from other parts of the country. In the run-up to the elections in 2014, Bangalore and Hyderabad saw hectic political action internships, which attracted youngsters from diverse backgrounds such as engineering, media and law. The interns were exposed to election campaigns of key parties, opinion poll surveys, manifesto analysis and interactions with experts etc. Many commented that Bangalore’s youngsters were eager to change the perception about the educated young middle class and their apathy towards the political system. Expectations were a majority of them would vote for the first time in a general election, representing the educated youth eager to join politics and make a difference.
At the end of it all, it was found by an urban anti-corruption party that only 150,000 had registered. In the age of social media, these urban types are obviously influencing their country cousins as well.
The same is the situation in other cities such as Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh etc.
Experts say not voting can be the result of disillusion (the view that it makes no difference who wins); apathy (the lack of interest in politics); impact (the view that an individual vote won’t make a difference); alienation (the view that politics is not for young people); knowledge (not knowing enough about politics to cast a vote); and inconvenience (voting is too time consuming).
The apathy adds to a tidy pile of evidence suggesting that young people in India see the future — theirs and the country’s — as only loosely tied to the whims of politicians. In a world where everything is digital, fast-moving, and easily connected, the voting booth feels like an archaic institution as out of touch as the politicians on the ballot.
In the internet age, they have information and opinions at their fingertips; they have a political opinion on Twitter, even if that opinion is “I don't care”. Compared to older generations, millennials perhaps take the power of voting for granted.
While the apathy towards the political system is a fact, the real reason seems to be that the young generation just doesn’t care about anything outside their immediate ecosystem. In 2013, Time magazine had a cover that showed a teenager posing for a selfie with her smartphone. The text that accompanied the picture said, “Millennials are lazy”. Such commentary has given rise to the perception of millennials — defined broadly as people born in the 1980s and 1990s — being careless and self-absorbed egoists who are almost impossible to manage; who treat loyalty to any system as an alien word; and who are permanently in chill-out mode. In short, they are just the me-me-me generation, as Time coined it. The fact is that millennials—who came of age up in a world of Google, Wikipedia and social media—have an unrealistic expectation of accountability.
Many suggest one way out could be to make voting mandatory as is the practice in 11 countries. It’s unlikely such enforcements will work in a country like India. The Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat tried this in 2009, but did not receive the assent of the Governor on the ground that the Bill violated Article 19(1) (A) of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression that also included the right not to vote. It’s unlikely that Mr Modi as prime minister would repeat that experience.
Perhaps we need to create a hashtag and Instagram our ballot.
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
