Hello friends!

First of all, today I'd like to congratulate all my Indian friends and well wishers on 70th Republic Day celebrations of India.

How much vibrant or flawed the world's largest democracy is or whether the democratic system a best form of governance - this is something I'd like to write about but will save it for another day.

General Elections are due this year. So today, I'll talk about NVD.

_{Image credit: Kerla News}

National Voters' Day (NVD)

The eve of Indian Republic Day is celebrated as National Voters' Day. Since its beginning in 2011, we celebrated our 9th NVD (National Voters' Day), yesterday .

If you look at past record for voter turnout in Indian General Elections, you will find a very low turnout of somewhere between 55% to 65%. Last General Election in 2014 saw the highest ever voter turnout in the history of India. Do you know how much was that figure? Only 66.38%!

There is a belief that higher voting percentage can make the democracy more vibrant and better. To promote the interest in voting, it was decided to celebrate 25th January, the Foundation Day of Election Commission of India (ECI), as National Voters' Day.

Right to vote

Unlike many other democracies where "right to vote" is a fundamental right, in India it's just a "legal right". NVD was instituted to curb the lack of interest to get out to vote in a poll and esp. to encourage young voters to take part in the political process. The awareness message also wants to emphasize that voting is both a right and a duty of every citizen.

The average voting percentage figure is also very misleading as it only calculates a %age of total electoral roll. But in India millions of people don't have their names on electoral rolls. Most people do not take it seriously, so they don't put efforts to enroll themselves whereas many are disenfranchised due to ineffective system. These include homeless & poor people, prisoners, disabled persons, people who frequently keep changing their city of residence / migrant workers, displaced / refugees etc.

Aside this, many times people go to a polling booth only to find that their name is mysteriously missing from the polling list. People also need to ensure every time, if their name is in the list or not. Just possessing your Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) doesn't guarantee your name in the poll list.

Every citizen over 18 years of age is entitled to vote. Check if your name is on the list at http://www.nvsp.in/ or your State specific website. If your name isn't there, you should enroll yourself using the Election Commission of India website or their National Voters’ Services Portal.

Please note that next General Election are scheduled to be held somewhere between mid-April to mid-May, 2019. And 30th January, 2019 is the current deadline for initiating all changes and updates to your electoral roll.

I think every citizen should go out and vote if it's possible. This is the little price we have to pay for our own liberty.

Should voting be made mandatory?

Certain school of thoughts want voting to be made mandatory for every one. This will make participation of everyone in the formation of government possible. But I beg to differ with this view-point. "Right to Vote" inherently also implies "Right to not to vote". So no one should be forced to exercise their voting franchise.

Some years back, Election Commission of India included a NOTA (None Of The Above) option in the ballot paper. Thus people who don't want to vote any candidate can choose this option under section 49-O. This is a great initiative to increase the voter turn out. But still I don't favour the stance of making voting mandatory. Instead, a small incentive can be offered to citizens who exercise their franchise e.g. some rebate in Income Tax or local authority taxes or some lucky draw prize 😉

Such an effort was announced to recognize Youth voters with a badge having a logo, "Proud to be a voter - Ready to vote". However I haven't seen any such badge myself. Have you?

Many corporate sponsored promotional campaigns have spread a great deal of awareness towards importance of voting. Here is an example during last General Election, how a commercial organization lured citizens to vote with an offer of 1000/- INR to voters:

Anyway, it's good to see corporates along with Government and Election Commission making some effort to involve all citizens for exercising their vote franchise.

• So, are you going to vote in the next General Election this summer?
• Have you ever voted in the past? Do you like to vote?