Bhubaneswar, Jan. 11: The Odisha Nagarika Samaja (ONAS) presented a draft national strategy — Youth United for Voter Awareness (YUVA) — to the Election Commission today to emphasise the need for mobilising more youngsters across the country for active participation in electoral processes.
Chief election commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi and election commissioners V.S. Sampath and S. Brahma addressed civil society members at the Centre for Youth and Social Development here. They expressed concern over the poor turnout of voters, especially youths, during polls.
Quoting official statistics, the convenor of ONAS, Bhagbanprakash, said that out of 714 million eligible voters in the country, 281 million did not cast their votes in the last general elections. The draft contains 10 strategic components to provide an insight into the factors that prevented or discouraged youth from voting. “Out of the total number of non-voting citizens, 36 per cent were below the age of 35,” said Bhagbanprakash, who has been associated with youth development programmes for the last 40 years.
Major components of the draft include uniting organisations of youth volunteers, focusing on “low voter turnout” constituencies, increasing participation of young women, promoting participation of urban youth and citizens who are internet-savvy, reorganising the contribution of volunteers and implementing monitoring and evaluation.
“Along with electronic voting machines (EVM), we need another EVM – Enlightened Voters’ Movement.
“The youth should stop complaining and start voting through which new opportunities can be created for them to play leadership roles in public affairs,” added Bhagbanprakash.
Quraishi said: “Youth is the backbone of the country and the challenge today is to ensure their active participation in elections.
“We plan to set up an Indian Institute of Democracy and Election Management in the country soon for training key personnel in elections, and to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16 years to involve more youngsters.”