once again internal immigrants excluded from the polls

There are hundreds of thousands of Indians who cannot return to their home States every election due to distances and high costs. They are mainly day laborers who would have to give up their salary and look for a new job. Indians in the diaspora also have the same problem. The proposal for a remote voting machine was rejected by all parties last year.

New Delhi () – Tomorrow the elections in India end, which began on April 19 and took place in 7 phases in the 28 States and eight Union Territories. Almost 970 million citizens were called to the polls, but hundreds of thousands of Indians must renounce exercising their right to vote. They are internal migrants, the backbone of the national economy who, due to distances and high costs, cannot afford to return to their State of origin to vote. These are mostly day laborers who move from rural areas of the country to big cities: street vendors, bricklayers, rickshaw drivers. They are often children of farmers and laborers who have not found work in the countryside and look for work in the city, from where they send money to the family.

Kartik Naik and Babulal Naik, 40, roommates from Orissa who worked in several Indian cities, say that in 30 years their salary went from 100 to 900 rupees (from 1.10 euros to almost 10) for jobs that normally They spend between 8 and 12 hours a day. “I send around 4,000 rupees, depending on how much work I get,” Kartik said.. From Kerala, where he is now, he would have to spend the same amount to vote again, in addition to losing several days of work. “If I could have voted here, it would have been nice. “I shouldn’t have to spend so much money,” he added. Furthermore, many people, after being absent to vote, have to start their job search again from scratch.

Despite low wages, internal migrants contribute to the 10% of gross domestic product of India. According to a 2020 study, there are 600 million such workers in India, which is equivalent to 43% of the Indian population, which today has 1.4 billion inhabitants. In the 2019 elections nearly 300 million did not vote of people. Not all were internal migrants, experts point out, but without a doubt, they add, the lack of mobility influences participation. Opinion shared by the Election Commission of India: As per the latest updates, the first phase recorded a turnout of 66.14%, the second 66.71%, the third 65.68%, the fourth 69.16% , the fifth of 62.20% and the sixth of 63.37%. Data lower than that of the 2019 elections, probably due to the scorching heat that prevented many people from leaving their homes. The data for the seventh and final phase will be released after the polls open on June 1, while the counting will take place on June 4.

At the beginning of last year the Electoral Commission had proposed to the parties to discuss the possibility of introducing remote electronic voting, but in March 2023 the government reported that it did not intend to do so for migrants. The opposition, represented by the Congress Party, also showed no interest in the issue. “Empowering domestic migrants through voting is a paradigm shift,” said Ashwani Kumar, a sociologist and author of a 2015 study on the right to vote for internal migrants. “Taking into account the number of voters who do not go to the polls, allowing migrants to vote remotely can substantially alter electoral results at the national and regional level. “The citizen who does not vote constitutes an enormous democratic deficit.”

If this problem is not addressed (first of all with a new census, because seasonal workers, for example, are often not even counted among migrant workers) it is destined to arise again in the future in which it has often been defined as “the largest democracy in the world.” According to the most recent data, India is expected to have a migration rate of approximately 40% in 2030, with an urban population of around 607 million people, an increase due almost exclusively to internal population movements.

The Indian parties have instead addressed another group of Indian migrants, those who are abroad, although they have the same problem. After registering as “overseas voters” they have to go to their hometown in India to cast their vote in their constituency. According to government data, there are almost 16 million diaspora Indians in the world, classified as “non-resident” or NRI. The largest group, 3.4 million, is in the United Arab Emirates, followed by 2.5 million in Saudi Arabia. The United States, in third place, is home to 1.2 million Indians. According to the Electoral Commission, 71,000 people were registered to vote in the 2019 elections, less than 1% of those who were outside the country at the time. This year the number has increased to 118 thousand. But, as for internal immigrants, registering does not equate to having the ability to exercise the right to vote.

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