Lok Sabha polls 2024: First-time voters keen to vote, college breaks make things easy

“The process of registering to vote has itself been a learning process for me,” said Nitisha, 20, who lives in Karve Nagar.

“In the process of procuring all my documents and filling out the necessary forms, I had to keep asking my parents or looking up the Election Commission website for various details. I was so happy when I finally got my ID and then eventually saw my name on the electoral roll. I would say it is almost an initiation process for youngsters into a democracy,” she added.

Pune has over 13.42 lakh registered voters between age 20 and 29 years but many youngsters come from other areas to study or work in the city as well.

With the final polling dates out, 21-year-old Ashok Jogdand has booked his tickets to go back to his village in Beed district where he will cast his vote for the general elections for the first time. Although he is planning to do an internship in the city, he has made it a point to go back to vote.

“It is essential for the youth to participate in elections, I feel, to safeguard our democracy. Along with voting, political education is also important so that we vote responsibly after assessing the various political campaigns and not on the basis of religious divisions, caste bias or other agenda,” he said.

Unemployment and poor quality or inaccessible education are major issues for the youth right now, he said.

Most outstation college students will be done with their semester exams and have college breaks making it easier for them to go home.

Shruti Khalatkar, a 21-year-old girl from Nagpur studying in Pune, said, “I feel that it is our duty as citizens to vote and participate in elections consciously. Most of our politicians are relatively older and sometimes the issues of youth are dismissed as GenZ problems. I think youth issues need to be brought to the forefront and the youth themselves need to play a part in that.”

The city administration has been rigorously campaigning for active participation and voter enrolment among the youth. Starting last year, the State Election Commission has partnered with several colleges in the city to conduct SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) activities with the motto – ‘No Voter to be Left Behind’.

Speaking about youth registration, Deputy Collector Minal Kalsekar said, “We have organised voter registration drives in various educational institutes. We trained a few students from each college who then assisted their peers and that really worked, apart from social media campaigning, etc.”

With inputs from Swamini Petkar