I'm a 3rd year law student, and I study in the National Law Institute University, Bhopal.

As a responsible
citizen of my country, I would like to throw some light towards the grave shortcomings of our election
system that certainly questions the very essence of the process of conducting elections. Despite being an
aware citizen and a sincere law student, as of today I'm 22 but haven't voted even once out of four or five
voting opportunities, neither most of my friends have here at college despite having multiple
opportunities to vote.

Former American President Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasized on the importance of education in a

democracy: "Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose
wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education".

My concern seeded after learning the fact that in 2014, more than 281 million people couldn't use their
right to vote. In the world's largest democracy, which is blessed with the youngest work force in the world
the educated youth have to set out for the bigger cities very early in their lives for higher studies or jobs,
the voting environment isn't really too democracy friendly and the situation certainly awaits a positive
action by the government.

Ours is one of the most premier law schools in the country and therefore there is a very diverse
representation of the students from each and every corner of the country. And like me, most of my friends
would not be able to use their right to vote in the upcoming election in 2019 as well due to the strict
academic schedule. According to the 2011 Census data, about 20 million youngsters turn 18 every year.
When the 2019 elections come around, there could be, hypothetically, 100 million first time voters and it
is we the students, the young addition to the work force who have high hopes from the government fail to
be a part of the biggest democratic festival of the world just because most of us have to move to different
parts of the country for education and employment and a day’s leave at the parent constituency is not
always feasible and economically affordable in most of the cases.

As of today the public has been successfully exposed to multiple arenas that are hyper sensitive and hold
high confidentiality in the area of e-governance in the likes of the Digital India Movement and e-banking
and other privacy specific initiatives, the idea of casting an e-vote does not look like a farfetched dream.
The solution addressing the problem can be as simple as setting up e-postal booths across the nation
where the absentee voter from ones constituency could exercise his right to vote using his digital identity
and Voter ID.

In this era of Digital India where India has set up the bar for any developing as well as developed
economy in e-governance it would be such a shame if we fail to address this major flaw in our democratic
structure.

I therefore humbly request on behalf of the fraternity of students a more modern day solution,
which is more voter-friendly, feasible and economical to this alarming flaw in our great democratic
structure that will benefit hundreds of millions.

Sincere Regards,
Vaibhav Gupta

3rd Year Law Student,

National Law Institute University,

Bhopal.

+91 7987192036