Read the passage below and give your comments.
Initially, the constitution of India declared 21 years as the voting age. But in 1988, the 61st amendment was
passed and this was reduced to 18 years of age.
Answers
the voting age is seen as a gimmick by the youth
Absurd! This was my first reaction when I was asked to write about the voting age in India being changed from 21 to 18 in 1988. What could I possibly say, I thought? After all, how can one take Madam Sonia ji or Atal ji or any of the other innumerable jis clowning around during the election campaigns seriously?
But, of course, sometimes one has no choice. Some friends voted for the Congress after the Gujarat riots. They were not in love with the Congress. Just that I suppose, if asked to pick between potassium cyanide and rat poison, one would choose rat poison. At least there'd be a thin chance of survival. For the time being.
I met a soft-spoken, 20-year-old in a bus, along with her boyfriend. "Do you vote? I mean, 18 and above can vote," I asked. I had touched a raw nerve. "I know I can vote but I don't," she answered. "I want to. I want to make a difference. But I don't know who to trust, I mean the political parties. They sound equally fake while campaigning. Corrupt. If I couldn't figure it out at 18, I doubt I'll suddenly make up my mind next year when I turn 21. I can't vote."The bus ran over a pothole and everybody groaned. The boyfriend turned to me from the aisle seat and scowled. "None of those jokers are going to fill any potholes."
On December 15, 1988, when the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill lowering the voting age to 18 years, it was adopted unanimously. Rajiv Gandhi, the prime minister at the time, said it was "an expression of our full faith in the youth of the country".
Answer:
The 7th National Voters’ Day will be observed on Wednesday, January 25. It was instituted in 2011 in remembrance of the foundation day of the Election Commission of India. It was on January 25, 1950 on the eve of the first Republic Day that the Election Commission had come into existence. But it was future course of action rather than history that determined the decision on National Voters’ Day. Its declared objective was to increase the enrollment of eligible voters, especially those who had recently turned 18.
The Constitution (Sixty First Amendment) Act, 1988 had lowered the threshold voting age from 21 years to 18 years thus fulfilling a longstanding public demand. As a consequence, 35.7 million (or three and half crore) youths between the ages of 18 and 21 years could exercise their voting right in the 10th general elections held in November, 1989.
But the mission was far from complete. The ensuing two decades did not produce exactly encouraging results