Are Urban Migrants the Silent Spectators of Indian Elections?

Nestaway Technologies revealed that as many as 91% of urban migrants are not registered as voters in the cities where they currently reside in. A study titled ‘Urban Migrants: the silent spectators of Indian elections?’ was conducted among 1100+ urban migrants mostly in their 20s living in metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi, and NCR.

The study revealed almost all the urban migrants are not registered as voters in the city where they currently live in after moving out of their hometown (where only 27% are not registered). Urban migrants move to different cities for multiple reasons, few being, marriage, jobs, studies, etc. Whatever be the reasons, if they do not travel to their hometown for the elections, then they are unlikely to cast votes.

Speaking about the survey, Amrendra Sahu, co-founder and CEO Nestaway Technologies said, “Many urban migrants have tried to update their addresses in their voter registration. However, if you do not belong to the same state you are residing in, the entire process is very tiresome, especially if they do not speak the local language. The authorities are more proactive now in helping out fresh voters. However, we cannot deny that there is a dire need for awareness and education about the voting process. At Nestaway, we are making a conscious effort towards this. We believe that this is one step towards the process of making voter registration simpler and accessible to migrants”

More shocking is that 63% of migrants believe that they cannot vote if they move to a new city, while 41% of migrants felt that if they have a voter’s id, they are eligible to vote anywhere. The survey also shows that 73% of urban migrants do not know how to register as a voter in the city they live in. Despite efforts from the government as well as private institutions, knowledge about voting is very negligible amongst the migrant population.

Despite lack of awareness, a whopping 75% said they want to vote during the upcoming 2019 general elections. The participant of the study are mostly men (80%) in their 20s (34% are in the age group 18-25 and 44% in the age group 25-30)