Can Social Mobile Apps Make Indian Youth Vote for India!

At a time when Indian politics is witnessing a sea change in none other than its Capital State City, is it the right time to discuss the role of Indian youth and that too its voting behaviour? After all, the Chief Electoral Officer has credited Delhi's 4 lakh, 18-19 year old voters, for the impressive jump in voting for Delhi Election 2013! If you don't believe it, read it here, Delhi election 2013: Young guns fired up this poll, chief electoral officer says

And now consider this- 50% of Delhiites aged 18-19 have not enrolled to vote! About half of those aged 18 or 19 in Delhi had not enrolled themselves to vote as per this news published on 18th November 2013. It means that these voters could not vote on 4th December, about after a fortnight. And then on December 5, 2013, the youth of Delhi is credited with the making of history! They brought the newest, only one and a half years old political party in the front-line of Delhi's politics! Why then we need to discuss youth's role in voting for elections when they have shown this 'hard-to-believe' magic? Because, had the other 50% of this youth voted in the election, Delhi would have got its preferred government in no time and without any political drama! And this government would have been a strong one that could have brought the changes our youth (and the old too) wants.

Just imagine, if only 50% of young voters can dictate the political future of our capital state what will happen when all of the country's youth come and vote for India in the General Elections for Lok Sabha due in 2014!

Enough Proof for Digital Vote Appeal!

Whether it is in the USA where Obama spent millions of dollars to woo the young voters online or at the home front where old as well as new parties are taking to the online medium to impress and inspire their voters, digital revolution cannot be ignored in the General Elections of India of 2014. Twitter, Facebook, Google hangouts, You tube videos have and are doing wonders but what's more potential now are the mobile apps, the social apps! Because it is here where the youth is- on their Mobile phones!

Now it is Mobile Social Apps!

Social networking sites like Facebook are making way for social mobile Apps like WeChat! They are the new ways to connect the youth, even for inspiring them to vote for India! This new 'instant noodles' and 'instant messaging generation' is less patient and thank god because we really need a fast change in our political social system too! This generation reads little and writes more (sms and chats!), So, they cannot be inspired through books and write-ups. They need to be inspired by what they like- online networking! Yes! They need to be mobilized by friends' actions! What their friends do, they do! So, if the 50% of those young voters who are enrolled to vote and have actually voted (the enlightened voters) can influence the rest of the 50% (the ignorant voters who have not yet enrolled or voted), can't we get all of them to vote for India in the next general Elections of 2014! Of course we can. Both- the enlightened voters and ignorant voters- are there at one place- on WeChat and WhatsApp! So, how do we do it? Of course through Apps!

What Types of Apps can Mobilize Young Voters?

There have to be many of them and they have to be useful and interesting enough to catch the attention of our youth. Some of the suggestions below can be taken heed of by the socially responsible App companies!

Voter Registration App

Given the image of the various government offices, our youth finds it a detractor to go to the Electoral office and submit the form to get enrolled for voting. Some Apps can be introduced to make this procedure hassle-free. For example, there can be an App, say, 'Be a Proud Indian Voter' App. This app can have fields where the person can fill in his personal, residence, constituency details etc. and get a pre filled application form directly in his or her mailbox. A print out can be then taken out and after signing, it can be submitted, with the required documents, in the Electoral registration office.

But what's social here? This app can have a list of contacts (and of course a search option) who may help the users in filling up their details. For instance, a person might know his district but may not know the assembly or parliamentary constituency from where he is eligible to vote from. Thus, either he can search the exact constituency through whatever knowledge he has with him or connect with his friends and/or experts who might help him getting the right information. If an NGO or some other support group is engaged and they might organize voter registration camps, the users can go to such drives on the fixed dates and submit their pre filled registration forms. There is already an app developed for this purpose for NRI Indians staying at America, the 'Vote for a Better India' app. If an app can be developed for overseas Indians to get registered and come to India for voting during General Elections 2014, why can't one be there for inspiring our youth right at home! Well there's one already- Voter Registration India. It just needs a variation with an advanced feature making it a little social!

PS- What more can we get! I was in the middle of writing this article and here comes the news of Google's tie up with the Election Commission of India for Voters' registration. Google dips into CSR budget, ties up with Election Commission for voters’ registration. So, for the next six months, Google has offered the EC its resources, including its search engine, so that the voters can check their enrollment status online and locate their polling station, complete with directions by Google Maps. Anyone can type his name/EPIC (Elector's Photo Identity Card) number and address on the Google Search engine to generate results matching the voters' name with his assembly/Lok Sabha constituency as well as pinpointing the location of his polling station. Google Maps will give exact directions to the voter on how to get to the correct polling station on the polling day. This feature can greatly help any app developed for voters' registration or mobilization!

Voting Day Holiday Planning App

Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 says that all the people are entitled to get a paid holiday on the day of voting for Lok Sabha or assembly polls. This include people employed in any business, trade, industrial undertaking or any other establishment including shops and even daily wage or casual workers. But sadly, many people avail of this holiday not for voting but for travelling or discharging some work or just resting at home, youth included! So, can we have a social app that lets people plan for the day of voting? Why not! When travel companies can have their holiday planning apps, why can't we a have an app called “Cool Voting Day Holiday Planner” App!

We can hope for such an App that allows people do additional planning about how to spend their voting day before or after voting. For example, after searching for their polling booth location with the help of the app (remember Google's tie up with EC!), they can locate for the other interesting places on the way to the polling booth or surrounding the booth. They can then plan their voting day accordingly- they may want to pick up their friends/ relatives on the way to the booth and cast vote together, locate a restaurant on the route and have a family lunch on the way back home from the booth, may go to a picnic spot after casting vote early in the morning or book a movie ticket in a nearby multiplex to watch the latest release after casting their vote!

When they share their plans with their friends through the app, they might get mixed responses about how good or bad their plan is. They can compare their plans with their friends who can engage in interesting discussions and so on. There may be socially responsible innovations too like someone may want to volunteer at the polling booth to help the senior citizens, disabled people and so on. Some NGOs ferry aged to booths and back. App may have list of such NGO or people can themselves offer aged in the neighbourhood to ferry to and fro! The App can have points or badges or emoticons or any other such things that can be used by the friends to show support or opposition to anyone's voting holiday plans! This may motivate those to go caste their votes who do not include going to polling booth in their plan for the holiday on voting date!

Political Gaming App

Who can deny the importance of gaming apps! Not me. Not you, not the App developing companies, and not even the political parties! Need a proof? See this for yourself- Android goes political with Modi Run, Aap Run and Angry Indians apps. When gaming apps can benefit the political parties, why can't they inspire the youth to vote! While the already available political gaming apps are developed solely for political gains in the elections, those meant for youth mobilization needs to be more neutral and positive in effect.

There can be games depicting the journey of two or more friends right from becoming eligible to vote, registering their names in the voting list to the forming of government and the outcomes thereafter! This may include factual information, manifesto, ideologies of different political parties (voters are information hungry too!) People playing the game may select the party candidate they believe in based upon the information provided but they could do so only when they are registered as a voter (in the game too!). They can then help their chosen party/candidate to overcome the obstacles in the run for power by appealing for votes and collecting votes from their friends by sharing and inviting them to play the game. With the immense popularity and usage of high end smart phones and iPads by today's youth, a group game that can be played by multiple users is not impossible to be made. Such socio political gaming app can in fact, go a long way to inspire the youth to vote for India. What more, if such a game is linked with the actual results of the election (after the results are declared), then they may actually create immense interest in the youth to test their virtual voting with the actual voting result. For example, after the results are declared, the gaming app may give a comparison of the player's virtual score (his own votes and collected votes) with that of the actual win or loss of his choice of party/candidate. I am not technically sound and thus don't know whether it is possible or not but with the kind of advancement in the technology and the technical miracles happening everyday, I am sure, some developer might develop a code that can make such a political gaming app! Amen!

What I call my above imaginations?- A Roadmap for Social Mobile Apps to Inspire and Mobilize India's Youth to Vote in the General Elections 2014!

Don't forget to #VoteforIndia in 2014!

This article is written for the Indiblogger #VoteforIndia Contest by WeChat, “Indian General Elections 2014 with social mobile apps” for the topic How would you inspire and mobilize India's youth to vote in the Indian General Elections 2014 using social mobile apps?