That’s the number of 18- to 23-year-olds who could not only shape the 2014 elections, but future ones too of the Indian electorate going to the polls over the next few weeks, 120 million 18- to 23-year-olds will qualify to vote for the first time. Their number equates to the voting population of several European countries put together. Understandably then, India’s youth are being given the title of ‘game-changers’ in the elections.
India has an unrivalled youth demographic, in fact half the country’s population of 1.25 billion people is under 25 years of age. The youth are leading the call for change, such as in the protests that caught both the nation and the world’s imagination after the brutal Delhi gang rape in December 2012. The issues that most concern the young voter revolve around better employment opportunities, the containment of price rises, and corruption.
