The Big Picture – E-voting for NRIs and migrant labour:Pros and Cons:
Summary:
Exercising one’s right to vote is one of the most precious rights which exists in democratic
countries. In India, adult franchise has been the basis eversince we adopted the constitution in
1950. However, in the last few years there has been a lot of debate about certain categories of
people being left out for various reasons. The strong NRI community consisting of over 1 crore
Indians living and working in abroad is one community as well as the domestic migrant
labourers. The NRIs were conferred the voting rights in 2011 with a condition however that
they should exercise it in the place they reside in India normally. This curtailed many NRIs who
could not go back to their place of residence to vote. Meanwhile there is a lot of discussion on
the voting rights of domestic migrant labours who constitute apparently 37%. Most of these
people are denied voting rights as they can’t manage to go back to their homes to exercise their
rights. The issue has been coming before Election Commission for many years.
Since it becomes difficult for NRIs to come to their places during election, e-voting or proxy
voting is proposed in place of the present system. However, the Election Commission has ruled
out e voting through internet. A committee, comprising officials from the Election Commission,
the Union Law Ministry and the Union Ministry of External Affairs, was constituted to look into
this matter. The recommendations made by the empowered committee included allowing e-
ballot for NRIs. The move to allow NRIs to use e-ballot facility will require changes in the law.
Under the proposal, NRIs will be sent ballot papers electronically and they will have to return it
to poll authorities physically. The committee was of the view that the e-postal ballot, where
blank postal ballot is transferred electronically to NRIs and returned by post, can be employed
after validation of the process and pilot implementation in one or two constituencies and then
be scaled up for parliamentary elections if found feasible, practicable and meeting the
objectives of free and fair elections.
The government in January had informed the Supreme Court of its decision to accept the
Election Commission’s recommendation to allow Non-Resident Indians to vote from overseas
through e-postal ballots or proxy voting. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India had
given the government eight weeks’ time to inform it about further steps to implement the
modalities of the EC recommendations.
The government’s decision to allow NRIs to vote could set the stage for expatriates to emerge
as a decisive force in the country’s electoral politics. This decision also, historically, removes an
unreasonable restriction posed by Section 20(A) of the Representation of the People
(Amendment) Act of 2010, requiring overseas electors to be physically present in their
constituencies to cast their votes. There are 10 million Indian citizens staying abroad, and with
543 Lok Sabha constituencies, this means an astonishing average of 18,000 votes per
constituency may get polled from abroad. These additional votes, if polled, will obviously play a
crucial role in state and general elections.
However, the voting rights for poor migrant workers seem to have been overlooked. Despite
the fact that they make up the backbone of agriculture and industrial production in this
country, the Centre and EC have blatantly ignored their interests. Over 37% of India’s labour
are migrant workers. They are possibly the most disadvantaged group in the country, and
largely belong to the unorganised labour force. They are usually from lower castes with poor
socio-economic backgrounds. They are far removed from the social and structural framework of
the government. They cannot access any social welfare benefits, have no access to pensions,
work through extremely poor job security, get paid pittance, and do not have the backing of
labour unions.
They also find it extremely difficult to vote. As migrant workers are usually travelling around the
country looking for work, they cannot vote from their home state. India does not allow postal
ballots for anyone other than government workers posted outside their constituency on
election duty. Therefore, most migrant labourers will never vote for assembly or general
elections. The EC cited logistical problems and opposed voting rights for migrant labourers at
the place of their work. Under the current law, migrant labour will have to travel back to their
homes without paid leave, just to vote. They are not only the most disadvantaged group, they
are also the most under represented.
In e voting, potential disadvantages exist as well including the potential for flaws or weakness in
any electronic component. It has been demonstrated that as voting systems become more
complex and include softwares, different methods of election fraud become possible. Experts
also argue that humans are not equipped for verifying operations occurring within an electronic
machine and that because people cannot verify these operations, the operations cannot be
trusted.
