Dip in number of young voters

Number of first-time voters, in the age group of 18 to 19, has gone down by 24,000 in one year

eye catching:The Election Commission, meanwhile, has put up a neon sign at its Delhi office to highlight its name.Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

Over the last one year, the electoral roll has witnessed an increase of two lakh voters. This healthy trend is, however, marred by a considerable drop in the enrolment of young, first-time voters.

The total number of voters in Delhi in October 2015 was 1,32,06,740 and the number has gone up to 1,33,95,455 in October this year — an increase of almost two lakh new voters.

However, the number of first-time voters, in the age group of 18 to 19 years, has actually gone down by nearly 24,000 in the last one year.

The number of young voters on October 1, 2015 was at 97,028, which went up to 1,28,776 in January this year but has now dipped to 73,203 this month. This is due to the fact that many voters who were 19 in January 2016, have now turned 20 and are out of the list of first-time voters.

However, this also shows that there has not been much addition of 18 to 19-year-olds this time around.

Trend

“There is definitely a dip in the number of young voters in the electoral roll but that is something we face almost every year and the issue has to be seen in its totality,” Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Chandra Bhushan Kumar told The Hindu .

“This has been the tradition and the figures are only for the last two years. Except for years when Delhi witnesses an election, the number of young voters hover around 70,000 to 90,000,” Mr. Kumar said.

“This trend has been happening for the last one-and-a-half year as the number of young voters goes thorough a dip in non-election years,” Mr. Kumar said, adding: “With the municipal elections scheduled next year, the enrolment is going to go up again.”

The CEO said that “the figure had gone up to 1.28 lakh in January this year and even reached two lakh in September, which is a very good number”.

The electoral office, however, is not taking the low numbers lying down and is carrying out voter awareness campaigns focussed on getting the youth enrolled. The motto of the campaign is: ‘No voter to be left behind’.

“We are targeting the young voters and have tied up with the education department and educational institutions,” Mr. Kumar said, adding: “Also, unlike earlier when a Voter ID card was the only identification card for young people, now we have Aadhaar cards also.”

The dip in number

is a trend in

non-election years... with the municipal polls scheduled next year, the enrolment is going to rise again