BIG PICTURE

SUMMARY
TOPIC OF THE DAY – NATIONAL VOTERS’
DAY
Syllabus- Speakers-
GS 2 – constitutional bodies, govt. 1. Akshay Rout, Former DG, ECI
policies and intervention, governance 2. Prof. Sunil K Choudhary, Political
Analyst
3. K.V. Prasad, Sr. Journalist
Context
▪ President Ram Nath Kovind, virtually addressed the 11th National Voters’ Day
Celebrations on January 25, organised by the Election Commission of India
▪ During the event, the he conferred the National Awards for the year 2020-21 and
also launched the Election Commission of India’s Web Radio: ‘Hello Voters’ – an
online digital radio service.
▪ He said that we should always respect the valuable right to vote. The right to vote is
not a simple right, people around the world have struggled a lot for this. Since
independence, our Constitution has given equal voting rights to all citizens without
any discrimination on the basis of merit, religion, race and caste. For this, we are
indebted to the makers of our Constitution.
National Voters’ Day
▪ National Voters' Day is celebrated all across the country on January 25 every year
since 2011, to mark the foundation day of the Election Commission of India, i.e.
25th January 1950, that operationalize the idea of universal adult suffrage.
▪ It is basically an intervention to empower voters and strengthen democracy.
▪ The main purpose of the National Voters Day celebration is to encourage,
facilitate and maximize enrolment, especially for new voters, i.e., to engage the
younger generation which has crossed 18 but is reluctant to be a part of the
nation building process.
▪ The theme for this year's National Voters' Day is ‘Making our voters empowered,
vigilant, safe and informed.’ This year ECI would have a bigger challenge ahead of
them as due to Covid 19, people would be reluctant to come out and vote.
▪ ECI aspiration is that no voter is to be left behind. Purpose - All to be enrolled
and once enrolled all will vote
Voting stats in India
• The 2019 elections attracted a turnout of over 67% – the highest ever in the
history of Indian general elections. (66.44% in 2014)
• Women’s representation has steadily increased in the Lok Sabha. In the first-ever
election, only 5% of the House consisted of women. Now, that has increased to
14%. This is still a low number given that it is not near proportional
representation. The U.S. has 32% lawmakers, while neighbouring Bangladesh has
21%.
• In 2019, India saw a increase in Youth turnout as compared to previous elections.
Importance of voting
▪ Sense of Empowerment - Through voting, people have a sense of ‘ownership of
government’.
▪ To make government more responsible and accountable - Indian voters have
brought revolutionary changes, in that regard, through voting e.g., in 1967, when
Congress Government was not working as per the aspirations of the people,
people brought the Congress Government to very thin majority at the center and
almost half of the State Governments were given to non-congress parties.
▪ By voting, people can decide the direction of change and development.
▪ To express oneself i.e., Voting helps people in expressing their thoughts on a
country, local constituency or about a candidate through the ballot box.
Challenges
▪ Trend was found by experts that, though we are the largest functional democracy but there is
democracy deficit which was noticed around 2009-2011 period because people who were
qualified to register were not doing that, and all the registered people are not voting. SVEEP
program encouraged people to register and vote.
▪ The increasing role of money power in the form of voter bribery and funding of political parties
▪ The manipulation of the media through paid news and other means.
• Over the last two decades, the influence of criminals in the political arena has shown a
tremendous increase. According to Vohra report the nexus between the criminal gangs, police,
bureaucracy and politicians has come out clearly in various parts of the country.
• Issue of electoral bonds - Neither the donor (who could be an individual or a corporate) nor the
political party is obligated to reveal whom the donation comes from. This undercuts a
fundamental constitutional principle, the freedom of political information, which is an integral
element of Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution.
• Electoral bonds make electoral funding even more opaque. It will bring more and more black
money into the political system.
• EVM tampering issue and the case for VVPATs
Initiatives taken by ECI to empower democracy
▪ cVigil - it enables citizens to report the model code of conduct violations such as bribery, free gift, liquor
distribution, playing loudspeakers beyond the permissible time during the elections.
▪ Electronic versions of the Electors Photo Identity Cards (e-EPICs) - it is a non-editable secure PDF version of the
EPIC and will have a secured QR code with image and demographics like serial number, part number, etc. E-EPIC
can be downloaded on a mobile or a computer and can be digitally stored. This is in addition to physical IDs
being issued for fresh registration.
▪ Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) - To fill the gaps in the areas where people do
not participate, fail to participate or don’t come and join enthusiastically. The program is basically, to educate
voters and to ensure their effective participation in elections.
▪ Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) - VVPAT is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballot less
voting system. The VVPAT is an independent printer system attached with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) that
allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended.
▪ Employing “Awareness Observer” across the country in order to compile a report on voting numbers and
reasons behind low or high participation in each constituency so that ECI can work upon the hurdles.
▪ Addition of ‘NOTA’ option has further enabled the people to realise importance of their vote in elections. By
choosing NOTA, voters have right to not to choose any nominated candidate.
▪ For decriminalization of Indian Elections, ECI and the Court has ensured together that the candidates declare
their criminal record and any cases, pending or not.
Way Forward
• Create voter information guides to provide them the information they need to register and cast their
ballots.
• People have confusion about the EVMs, election commission needs to give more creative
examples/solutions to solve this issue.
• More awareness programs need to start by ECI to attract the attention of new and young voters.
• Solve the problems of voters like registration problems, poll closures and long lines, malfunctioning
voting equipment, and other voter confusion.
• Some challenges like financing of elections, unfair use of social media in elections and proxy voting for
NRIs are yet to be addressed.
• Political class and ECI need to come together to find the ways and means to decriminalize the
elections. Entry of the criminals into politics should be taken in more serious manner.
• Indian Democracy will get strengthened, when all political parties, stakeholders including media take
their responsibility seriously and help each other in strengthening democratic institutions like Electoral
System.
Conclusion
As the ECI has encouraged people to vote and started several schemes and
reforms, citizens should take pledge to go out and cast their vote each and every
time when they need to do so. However, new challenges have been addressed and
ECI has constantly evolving and innovating as well to try and make the entire
election process far more simpler. Thus, Election commission, citizens of country
and political parties need to come together to ensure that we keep the spirit of our
vibrant democracy alive.
 THANK YOU
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