Aap kataar mein hai

Diya Doshi has not had much time to put her feet up in the last few days A secondyear student of Hinduja College she has been occupied with intercollege drives and encouraging the youth to come to a booth at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festivalmdashnot to experience live performances or to shop but rather to get voter identification cards The socially active and politically conscious 19yearold has been at this since January 25 which is marked as National Voters Day in IndiaThe final Electoral Roll released in Maharashtra on January 24 saw an addition of 243 lakh new names and the deletion of 20 lakh others In particular the subgroup of young voters between the ages of 18 to 29 witnessed a meagre rise of one per cent making Doshi a Mulund resident seem like something of an anomalyDiya Doshi and Ishita SharmaIn October last year when the draft revision of the statersquos Electoral Roll was published the government worryingly observed that 93 per cent of those in the age group 1819mdashpotential firsttime votersmdashhad not registered themselves The authorities responded by launching special drives which incentivised educational institutions to participate too Ultimately 67 lakh youngsters aged 18 and 19 and 8 lakh in the age group 20 to 29 were added to the final Roll But this did not curb speculation and stereotype about how GenZs may view politics without interest or concernDoshi who had her voter ID made a month ago says this is not true of her generation ldquoHow can we not want a say in who will be in office nextrdquo she asks amused and surprised ldquoMany of my peers have been enquiring about how they can obtain IDs Initially when I applied for mine I faced a few glitches When I learnt how to navigate these glitches I wanted to help whoever I could to get their IDs before it was too laterdquo she says speaking to this writer over the phone after her second day at the KGAF The stall there had registered a total of 300 individuals by thenMumbai voters queue up during the Maharashtra legislative assembly back in 2019 to exercise their right to vote PicGetty ImagesThe glitch Doshi experienced concerned a One Time Password OTP The Election Commission of Indiarsquos website and app both have exhaustive instructions on how to register oneself to vote but many flounder at the very first step of what is supposed to be a short 10minute process thanks to the absence of an OTP Over a dozen of Doshirsquos classmates too have reported that they didnrsquot receive a sixdigit number via SMS after downloading the Commissionrsquos Voter Helpline App In Doshirsquos case the OTP did arrive in her Inbox but it took an agonising 40 minutes to do soOthers like Zeel Parmar 18 have struggled with the apprsquos constant update requirements ldquoIn the process of trying to apply for an ID the app says it cannot do anything until I update it And this happens every half hour or so which has left me stuck in a loop for now says the Mulund resident who is a firstyear student of commercePratik Lokhande student of hotel management right Zeel Parmar commerce studentThe likelihood that she may not be able to vote this year has left Parmar frustrated ldquoThe next time Irsquoll be eligible to vote Irsquoll be 23 To me that is just not acceptable I want to ensure that I get to have my say even if the candidate I vote for doesnrsquot come to power That is the point of voting No one I know is saying lsquoIrsquom not interested in votingrsquo Everyone knows how important the General Election is this yearrdquo she explains adding that she will be attending a mega drive in her college on January 29 where she hopes these issues will be resolvedIt is surprising that firsttime voters arenrsquot told about these glitches Parmar opines when a simple guide could have potentially prevented them from running from pillar to post ldquoWhile we may eventually obtain our IDs these delays have led to panicrdquo she says echoing a sentiment shared by many of her peersThe complex nature of the online registration process has caused young people from less privileged backgrounds to hesitate and be cautious ldquoMy father and I visited the website to get registered but it was so complicated that the prospect of applying made us a little nervousrdquo says Pratik Lokhande a student of hotel management ldquoWhat if we feed in the wrong information and I never get a voter IDrdquoLokhande recalls that during previous elections corporators in Mitha Nagar Goregaonmdashwhere he residesmdashwould set up registration booths But he hasnrsquot heard of such initiatives this time leaving the 21yearold confused about where he can apply for the ID inpersonFor youngsters like Ishita Sharma 19 successful registration has not guaranteed a chance to vote A third year student at Hinduja College Sharma says ldquoOn all the platforms available I used the reference number provided upon registration but all that showed up was an error on the website when we put in the error The page doesnrsquot seem to be going forward and just stays static and you can see my reference numberrdquo says the Malad resident who underwent the process nearly four months ago ldquoI think Irsquom registered but I donrsquot know what the status of my application is I hope to get some clarity when I attend a drive and ask an Election authority if they can sort out my IDrdquo she says adding that she fears missing the cardrsquos delivery or worse not being registered in the first placeBy and large the ECIrsquos website and app are functional says Chaitanya Prabhu the flaw is the delays caused by technical errors Prabhu is the founder of Mark Your Presence an initiative targeted towards college students in an effort to help them register as voters ldquoIssues like the partial upload of a userrsquos photograph or the inability to upload it at all as well as the inaccessibility of the Devanagari script optionmdashfor those who are more comfortable in local languagesmdashpersist but the rate of success is much higherrdquo says Prabhu who has been working with the Maharashtra government since the 2019 State Legislative Elections when he helped register 10000 firsttime voters He believes these are niggling issues resulting from the large number of voters being onboarded in a relatively short span of timeWhat does irk Prabhu about his generation and those younger than him is the apparent lack of education and awareness about who their local candidate is He laments that the amping up of voter registration drives is not matched by measures to educate the youth in civic and political matters ldquoRegistration shouldnrsquot be aimless Most kids donrsquot know who is contesting elections from their constituency or local body Movement must be made in the area of voter awareness toordquo he argues67 LNo new voters aged 1819 added to Electoral Roll93Percentage of firsttime voters who hadnrsquot registered as of Oct