The foundation of democracy is on adult franchise. The word adult means the age attained by a person when he is entitled by the Constitution/EC rules to become eligible for voting in Parliamentary or State Legislative Assembly elections. At present 18 is the age prescribed to declare a person adult. A technical issue had come up in regard to attainment of adulthood and enlistment in the voter list. According to existing election rules, January 1 is the cut off date for determining attainment of adulthood and entitlement to casting a vote.
There was some confusion about the date of attaining adulthood. Suppose a person attained adulthood on January 2, it meant that he had to wait for one full year when he would be enlisted as a qualified voter. This is unjust because he loses one full year of his adult life without casting vote. The Election Commission had taken up this question with the Government and had suggested that there should be at least four cut-off dates in a year in order to facilitate youth to obtain entitlement without big loss of time. However, the government has agreed to only two cut-off dates and not four. The Election Commissioner has suggested January 1 and July 1 as the cut off dates.
Now the Law Ministry has drafted a bill in which multiple cut-off dates have been suggested. This is a very progressive decision made by the Government. The draft bill proposes two cut off dates and thus the big gap of attaining adulthood and enlisting for voting is reduced. It has to be noted that in our country the youth below 35 years of age comprise nearly 60 per cent of total population. The benefit of the draft bill will go mostly to the youth of the country whose population far exceeds the older groups of people. In other words, a fairly large number of youth of the country will have the chance of getting registered for enlistment as a voter. Obviously the youth vote in our country is burgeoning fairly well.
India is the country of the youth. One can imagine the enormous potential in the area of manpower India enjoys. Lacs of our youth are working in Gulf countries and remitting enormous money in the shape of foreign remittances back to the country helping in undertaking big developmental works and providing work for millions of labourers most of whom are categorized as migratory labourers always on search for new engagement.
The draft bill when approved will become an Act. The youth community in the country will be the principal beneficiary of new rules. The NDA Government headed by Modi has repeatedly said that it would do all it can to empower the youth of the country. The current programme of ordering multiple cut-off dates is precisely in the spirit of that commitment. Empowering youth also means bringing them into focus for sharing the responsibility of running the Government. It has to be noted that at the time of constituting his team of council of ministers, Prime Minister Modi stuck to the idea of inducting younger generation into the Government. Many people were surprised that contrary to the old practice of inducting older people into the Council of Ministers, Modi has kept older people out of the fold. Of course, he has worn the ire of many old stalwarts in deviating from the old practices but credit goes to him for having a vision of the shape in which future Governments in the country have to be run. Young India needs young leadership. It may be said that even the two cut-off dates are not a final word on the subject. It is just possible that in another attempt there will be as many as four cut-off dates in the youth attaining 18 years of age and getting enlisted in voter list. We express hearty thanks to the Government for agreeing to a very considered decision of accepting two cut-off dates a year for attaining adulthood.
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