With the heated discussions over politics, always comes the question, 'Whom to vote?' In spite of having the second largest populat...
With the heated discussions over politics, always comes the question, 'Whom to vote?' In spite of having the second largest population in the world, it is disheartening that elections in India almost always look like one-on-one battles and not a contest among all the people who want to serve the country by contesting elections. Not having many options to vote raises important questions like why adults below 25 years of age cannot contest elections.
The country has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and now the youths are learning and speaking about politics and often know more than those who have voted for the country for years because age is no more a factor when it comes to knowledge and wisdom. A nonpartisan national youth organization called Young India Foundation (YIF) is now working for involving people below the age of 25, in politics.
“The last time a major action taken towards empowering the youth in politics was in 1989 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18,” Founder of the organization said. “Next we want the government to reduce the age of candidacy to 21-25 for better representation,” he adds.
“When we think politics, we think MPs and MLAs. We often overlook the local tier of governance, which is most empowered to make changes at the grassroots level.” The foundation aims to empower India’s youth by helping people between the ages of 21 to 25 run for local-level positions as well as raise awareness on youth rights within India. “We are not looking for candidates with informal political patronage or those who are from the system. Rather we are looking for people, who have been outside the political spectrum but have the will and caliber for public service,” the young founder -Sudhanshu Kaushik said.
The country has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and now the youths are learning and speaking about politics and often know more than those who have voted for the country for years because age is no more a factor when it comes to knowledge and wisdom. A nonpartisan national youth organization called Young India Foundation (YIF) is now working for involving people below the age of 25, in politics.
“The last time a major action taken towards empowering the youth in politics was in 1989 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18,” Founder of the organization said. “Next we want the government to reduce the age of candidacy to 21-25 for better representation,” he adds.
“When we think politics, we think MPs and MLAs. We often overlook the local tier of governance, which is most empowered to make changes at the grassroots level.” The foundation aims to empower India’s youth by helping people between the ages of 21 to 25 run for local-level positions as well as raise awareness on youth rights within India. “We are not looking for candidates with informal political patronage or those who are from the system. Rather we are looking for people, who have been outside the political spectrum but have the will and caliber for public service,” the young founder -Sudhanshu Kaushik said.
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