Students and first time voters participate in a street play to create awareness on voting rights in Gauhati, India, Friday, April 4 2014. India will hold national elections from April 7 to May 12, kicking off a vote that many observers see as the most important election in more than 30 years in the world’s largest democracy. More than 378 million of India’s 814 million eligible voters between 18 and 35, according to census records. (AP Photo)
BANGALORE, April 4 (AP): What do India’s youth want from their politicians? Clean water, universal health care, women’s safety, food for all, better education, less corruption, better roads, more investment and above all, more jobs.
As India begins its election process Monday, the enormous population of ambitious, tech-savvy and politically engaged youths has great potential to sway the outcome. More than 378 million of India’s 814 million eligible voters between 18 and 35, according to census records.
India’s young voters have a world view that in many ways is strikingly different than their parents’ and grandparents’. They have grown up in a time of enormous international opportunity, technological innovation and high-speed economic growth.
“Our parents believed you can be happy only with financial security,” said Sushant Bangru, a 21-year-old biology major at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore. “But we know that passion and knowledge is above money. It’s about doing what you love to do.”
Anxious to pursue their dreams, young people are particularly concerned with India’s ability to add jobs. India added fewer than 3 million jobs between 2005 and 2010, far below the 1 million needed each month to keep up with student matriculation and Indians’ growing ambitions.
India’s first-time voters came of age in an era of economic reforms that eased socialist-leaning policies and allowed more imports and foreign investment. Annual per-capita income nearly tripled between 2002 and 2010, while India moved from a country mostly concerned with securing food and shelter to one in which priorities are jobs, electricity and infrastructure.
But the riches have rolled out unevenly, creating a conspicuous wealth gap that has fueled frustrations by putting lavish lifestyles in close proximity with the 400 million Indians — a quarter of the country’s population — living in poverty under $1.25 a day.
Those gaps are even more visible and public with the technology explosion. Twenty years ago people had access to only a single state-run TV channel and most had no telephone. Today, there are more than 200 TV channels — with some 40 devoted to news alone — while three in four Indians has a cell phone.
“We have no toilets in my home village, but everybody has a smartphone, and we all check every day for what’s happening in the campaign,” said 22-year-old Hanamanthray Biradar in Karnataka.
“Indian democracy is at a peculiar stage of maturity or evolution. There has been a particular way democracy has been functioning for the last 30 years, and there is a backlash against it,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, who heads the Association for Democratic Reforms in New Delhi. “With all the talk of the young electorate, the political parties are now scrambling to do whatever they can to grab young voters.”
The engagement of India’s youth in politics reached a pinnacle three years ago, as they joined urban middle-class protesters in marching in protests against endemic corruption. Their demands led to anti-graft legislation and the formation of the AAP.
Some voters say they’re already disillusioned by politics and unhappy with the candidates. But they plan to cast their ballots nonetheless, taking advantage of a new choice on the ballot — for “None of the Above.”
