The 61st Constitution amendment of 1988 that brought down voting age in India from 21 to 18 had reasoned that the present day youth were literate and enlightened and therefore deserved the opportunity to give vent to their feelings. It was also observed that ‘they were very much politically conscious’. The amendment was brought to include the unrepresented youth in the country’s political process. The amendment took care of millennials, understood to mean those who were born between 1981 and 1996 and partly generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012. But there is a new generation of ‘I-Gen’, the name derived from i-phone, whose members are perhaps even more enlightened and devoted to social causes than those targeted by the 61st amendment.
I-Gen members have shown that they are ambitious, dreaming and daring as well as endowed with more problem-solving capabilities than those belonging to the previous generations. There are at least a dozen successful Indian entrepreneurs who made it big before they attained the present voting age. The first time when the age group 15-17 got highlighted was during the Covid pandemic when the vaccination drive was extended to cover the members of this group. It was estimated that there were 7.4 crore people falling into this age group for the purposes of vaccination. This is a substantially big age group, which needs to be considered for inclusion in adult franchises. Their inclusion could bring a new dimension to the country’s electoral politics, as they have significant clout in determining the outcome of elections. A back of the envelope calculation shows that the addition of 7.4 crore new voters to the electorate would mean addition of over a lakh votes on an average to every Lok Sabha constituency.
It is 34 years since the voting age was lowered to 18 and the biggest difference is that today’s I-Gens are born in the internet era, which is a milestone in human history, impacting every aspect of life on this planet. Studies have shown that today’s super-connected kids are more environmentally conscious, tolerant, respectful and inclusive of diversities, but more individualistic. They have all the attributes that merited the inclusion of millennials and Gen-Z in universal adult franchise. There are many more successful teenage entrepreneurs in India, such as Advait Thakur, who heads a global technology and innovation company specialising in IoT related services and products; Tilak Mehta, one of the youngest Forbes panelists and a TEDx speaker, whose Paper N Parcels won him an youngest entrepreneur award; Akhilenda Sahu, recognised as the world’s youngest serial entrepreneur; and Farrhad Acidwalla, whose Rockstah Media success prompted CNN to interview him at the age of 17. It is high time that these young people get their well-deserved right to participate in the most crucial decision-making process in running the country.
