The elector-population (EP) ratio, which was 72.9% during the 2018 elections, has reduced to 68% in this year’s elections. This means, for every 100 eligible electors, the number of registered voters reduced from 72.9 in 2018 to 68 in 2023.
The decline could be due to the effect of cleansing of electoral rolls and low voter registrations during the 2021 and 2022 summary revisions owing to COVID-19, according to the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) Baseline Survey 2023, commissioned by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer for Karnataka.
Highest and lowest
While Chikkamagaluru district has the highest EP ratio at 83.3%, Bengaluru Urban has the lowest at 55.8% in 2023. Udupi and Mandya have an EP ratio of more than 80%, while Ballari and Yadgir have less than 65%. Except for three districts, all the others witnessed a decline in the EP ratio, revealed the survey.
A team of researchers from the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), led by S. Madheswaran, Professor and Head of Centre for Economic Studies and Policy at the institute, surveyed 4,452 persons from 45 Assembly constituencies spread over 23 districts.
2011 census
“The EP ratio should be equal to the ratio of 18+ population to the total population. In 2021, the ratio of the 18+ population to the total population turned out to be 73.17% based on the projected population. This ratio was only 68.3% for 2011 based on census data. With the decline in the fertility rate, the total population has not grown at the same rate as earlier leading to a high ratio of the 18+ population to the total population,” stated the survey.
“Comparing this year’s EP ratio with the ratio of the 18+ population to the total population indicates a gap of nearly 5.2 percentage points. This finding indicates the need for strengthening the registration process and bringing in more unregistered people into the electoral system,” recommended the survey.
Decline higher in males
The reduction in the EP ratio is relatively higher in the case of males. The EP ratios for males, as well as females (during 2018 and a majority of the districts during 2023), are higher than the proportion of the 18+ population. This difference between the EP ratio and the 18+ population proportion is more marked for males. This may be because of the recent improvement in the sex ratio, pointed out the survey.
Highest in 18-19 years
“It is disheartening to see that the gap in enrolment is the highest among the 18-19 year group, where only 36.7% have registered and 87.2% among the age cohort 20-29 years. Despite several activities to encourage young voters to register, the increase in the percentage between 2018 and 2023 is not encouraging. This calls for strengthening the Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) activities at the college level. As age increases, it is observed that EP ratio is high and more than 100 for those who are aged above 30 and this calls for further cleaning of the rolls by identifying people who have shifted, died, duplications and repeated names of voters in the electoral rolls,” pointed out the survey.
