Research paper

An empirical study on the Awareness & involvement of youth in elections

Balmik Sahu MBA student of

Lovely Professional University, Punjab (India)
ABSTRACT: PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to examine youth voting behavior in current scenario & which factors are influencing their voting behavior. DESIGN/METHOD/APPROCH- The design of this study is descriptive because questionnaire was used to run a survey among the young voters. And analysis various factors which is influencing their thinking. FINDINGS- the analysis highlights from the survey, 63% or 95 of the respondents go for voting while approximately 37% or 55 youth dont go for voting in presently. Some factors affecting their decisions such job schedule, too busy with work, Waste of time& effort, Dictatorship of politicians, resultant Trust of youth towards politicians be less. PAPER TYPE- Research paper

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Introduction

The research is about awareness in involvement of youth in elections. Democracy is the buzz world for our political system. The country desperately needs some. Young leaders who personify energy, enthusiasm, morality & diligence. No doubt we have progress lot in the last 62 but the development pace would have be completely different had some young torch beares led this process of development. Now a day we have only a handful of young leaders likes Rahul Gandhi, Sachin pilot, varun Gandhi etc. but they are in the political scenario because they belong to influential political family. The most democracies now set the voting age 18(107 to 121 countries with available data and as Lowes 15 (in the Islamic republic of iron).the young people likely to vote than adults and the young voting rates have been declining in many middle and high income countries. The percentage of youth to vote decline between 1997 to 2003 about 23% under age 29 years youth. Elections in India are conducted by the Election Commission of India, the authority created under the Constitution. It is a well established convention that once the election process commences; no courts intervene until the results are declared by the election commission. During the elections, vast powers are assigned to the election commission to the extent that it can function as a civil court, if needed. Campaigning ends the day before the voting day. Government schools and colleges are chosen as polling stations. The Collector of each district is in charge of polling. Government employees are employed to many of the polling stations. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being increasingly used instead of ballot boxes to prevent election fraud via booth capturing, which is heavily prevalent in certain parts of India. An indelible ink manufactured by the Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited is applied usually on the left index finger of the voter as an indicator that the voter has cast his vote. This practice has been followed since the 1962 general elections to prevent bogus voting.

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STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Mainly two problems for this deplorable scene of politics. One may be that the youth today are not interested in actively participating in political field. They thought dirty politics. Second problem may be that young people are not given opportunities to prop themselves claiming that they are not equipped with experience to participate activity in government logical seeing the monopoly of old leaders is almost all the major political parties.

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
My main purpose of research is To know why the youth are not interesting in voting. To know about the perception of peoples toward voting.

NEED OF STUDY
Today why young people turn away from politics. What is the percentage involvement & awareness of youth in election? Which factors are mostly influencing of their though. In current situation they are interested or not.

Review of literature

The research emphasize on awareness in involvement of youth in elections. Research has also focused behavior and their attitude because why they are not interested and turn way from voting. Julian bowers-brown & barrier gunter (2001), The purpose was to establish the overall efficiency of political websites in attraction member of electorate, engaging then involving themes ultimately retaining them as loyal supporters. When this idea put on test the parties were not all equally effective in the responses they provided. Devorah Aden, Rachel hertz-lazarowitz

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purpose this a case study the political power of school principals in is real project was to strength in local educational systems by develop of pink local educational leadership & by Im proving scholastic achievement and finding the evolving role of principles from individuals to community avant-grade & the unrelated streams. Christian Scharpp, lemuricahter (2005), in research e-voting to know about the factors that influence e-voting system by citizens b/w the ages of 18-24 year and used of this system enplanes 76% the young variance in young voters. Samantha webby, el-sahib (2007), studies the voting rights of the people for organization to contribute to a body of literature that seeks to challenge the marginalization of people with disability and to share our reflection with others interested in deeper thinking on the global impacts on their day to day work .and finding due to this the formalization on relationship b/w NGOS professionalization with the state & international political relation. Hamilton Nolan (2007), conducted a news the purpose lunching an election portal to bring together all of the precedential candidates. And finding the impact bring together all of 2007.precidential candidates along with political news, jobs video & a voter registration linkage. Nettletoepn, (2007), studies on a commenter the purpose of satchi, the labor parties advertisement to educate swathes of young people about the importance parties & reengages those who already have & interest. But finding result this disaffected voters. Kim borker (2009), conducted news purpose to find to candidates for ruling the Indian national congress party. Janine Dermody et al (2010), the purpose of the young people and voting behavior is to examine impact to trust, cynicism & efficacy on young people nonvoting behavior during the 2005 British general election as a finding young people are generally dislousthing of and very concision about Politian and the primeminister.they can also be interested in the election and vote. Part Davies & takir mian (2010), undertook a study of the reputation of the party leader .the purpose of this paper is to explore the similarity of the reputation of political leaders with those parties and to assers the claim of causal links and finding the leader reputation to appears to influence that of the party more than vice persons. Thamern (2010), conducted a News study to find opportunantof the legislation. The government has called on movement to take part in the election and amend the temporary low from within the parliament. Karl peater (2010), undertook a study purpose of this research to allow young candidates. Six year old to vote this time a high profit student most one in five hadnt a clue which they would vote forhananam rouga (2010) , studies a news paper to attract to candidate health insurance. University education and equal

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right for president of refugee camps were the three defining factors who is finding by giving these things they hope for a better parliament, one that addressed people concert and work to improve the country social &economic condition. Andrew potter (2010),studying a feature capture a particular democratic place for where decline the importance of elections in youth. and the finding the importance role of youth 2008 saw the second largest turn out of youth voters where age as 18 to 29 costing ballets.

Methodology:
a) Research design -The design of this study was descriptive because questionnaire was used to run a survey among the young voters. It has no control over the variation and can report only what has happened or what is happening the same and used the secondary data. b) Sampling techniques: Random sampling techniques used. c) Sample size- Sample consisted of 150 respondent of age group (18-35) d) Sample units- students, businessmen, self employees, e) Population of study The population of the study comprised of resident or non resident of Punjab. f) Scope of research- The area of research is Jalandhar & Phagwara city. We are choosing a nearest area because it is a time consuming process & very costly. So conducting this research only learning till limits. g) Data collection methodI. II. Primary data: It will be collected with the help of a self administered questionnaire. Secondary data: it will be collected with the help of books, research papers, magazines, news papers, journals, internet, etc. h) Questionnaire designAs the questionnaire is self administrated one, the survey is simple and user friendly. A word used in questionnaire is readily understandable to all respondent, so that they are unambiguous and easily understood. Also a technical jargon is avoided to ensure that there is no confusion for respondents. Mostly mansion is in this questionnaire factors.

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DATA ANALYSIS The responses from the questionnaires were tabulated and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. The statistical procedures used were the descriptive statistics in obtaining percentage.

FINDINGS
The survey conducted in Punjab (Jalandhar & Phagwara), in this research I involved 150 respondents who were young voters. All respondents filled of the questionnaires. We observed that 70%youths have voter ID card but approximately 30% youth are without card, but these youth may use other ID card for identification in election time. From the survey, 63% or 95 of the respondents go for voting while approximately 37% or 55 youth dont go for voting in presently. The reasons for declining turnout among young people are many. Low levels of political interest and knowledge, a declining sense that voting is a civic duty, certain job schedule difficulties, and limited contact with political parties and candidates are the most frequently identified factors. Clearly, these factors cannot all be addressed in the same manner. Political knowledge might be addressed directly by information and education campaigns, both between and during elections. Election administrators, political parties and candidates, educators, civil society organizations and young people themselves all have an important role to play. I have found Today most of the youth generation is literate, better understanding awareness from politics. They can taken better decision but some factors affecting their decisions such job schedule, too busy with work , Waste of time& effort , Dictatorship of politicians, resultant Trust of youth towards politicians be less.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

To sum up supreme leader had seen the necessity to choose candidates who were deemed suitable and were able to win the young voters' preference. Thus, candidates who were young,

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local, professional and generally accepted by the community were shortlisted. In this particular by-election, candidate was seen to possess more specialties which could have helped him to win compared to candidate. The lesson that should be learnt by contending parties who are involved in the general or by-election is that in the naming process, the most important factor to consider is the clean image of the candidate. Other than that, the grassroots' voice and their preference towards a certain candidate should always be considered by the leaders too. If an 'unclean' candidate is chosen, unwanted results might be obtained. Sometimes voter choose of the wrong candidates in the during Election time period. Its region may be political, familiar pressers or the candidates may fresher who has not about more feedback of candidates. But young generation can bring better govt. We suggest of government that voting should be also online because most of the youth dont present at election place because they work in company and student learning in out from state or country. These voter cannot use of their voting right. In these problem could be easily solve by online voting. REFERENCES Bowers-brown Julian & Gunter, Barrie (2002), political parties use of web during the general election aslib proceedings; vol.52, iss. (3). Eden, devorah & Hertz-lazarowitz (2002), the political power of school principle in israd, journal of educational administrator; vol.40, iss.(93) Scharpp, L.chrisian & carter, lemuria (2005), e-voting from apathy to adoption, journal of enterprise information management; vol.18 iss.(5) Webby, Samantha &E1-lahib,yahya(2007), organizing for voting rights of people with disabilities in Lebanon elections for activities equal opportunities international; vol. 26 iss.(5) Nettleton, Kate (2007), how can saatchis reach young voters?Compaign, pg.14 Barker, Kim (2009), youth movement sweeps India politics: Prime Minister Candidates lal Krishna adwaniand Rahul Gandhi both target youth people tribune business news.

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Dermody, Jain et al (2010), youth people and voting behavior: alienated youth and (or) an interested and critical citizenry? European journal of marketing; vol.44 iss.(3/4). Nolan, Hamilton (2007), youth voters; press feel my space &impact, PR week used newyork;vol.10, iss.(12) Davies, Gary & mian, takir (2010), the reputation of party leader of the party being led, European journal of marketing: vol.44, iss.(3/4) Kheetan, thameeh (2010), young political activities to speak up, mc clatchy-tribune business new Washington. Namrouga, hana (2010), young people vote for freshfacesmccalatchy-tribune business news. Potter, Andrew (2010), politics: where was the toronto;vol.123,iss.(45). WEB REFERENCES http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?st1=awareness%20in%20involvement%20of%20yo uth%20in%20elections&ct=jnl&nolog=974834&page=1 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=23236037&sid=5&Fmt=3&clientId=129893&RQT=309& VName=PQD http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=330481491&sid=13&Fmt=3&clientId=129893&RQT=30 9&VName=PQD http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1259621291&sid=17&Fmt=3&clientId=129893&RQT=3 09&VName=PQD http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1371242341&sid=5&Fmt=3&clientId=129893&RQT=30 9&VName=PQD http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1657426351&sid=3&Fmt=3&clientId=129893&RQT=30 youth vote?, mc leans &

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9&VName=PQD http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2162401231&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=129893&RQT=30 9&VName=PQD

APPENDIX - 1

QUESTIONNAIRES
An empirical study on the Awareness & involvement of youth in elections
Date: - ___________ Dear Sir / Madam, I am Balmik Sahu, a student of Lovely Professional University Punjab. Presently studying research methodology as my one of the subject and I am doing a brief survey to find out more about An empirical study on the Awareness & involvement of youth in elections. I am conducting the data only for purpose of study. So I requested you to kindly fill the questionnaires below and assure you. Thank you for your co-operation. Disclaimer: - I am using this data for learning purpose only & it is not legally responsible. This data will not going to send in any other organization, so can fill this data without worrying about any things. Q. No.:- _____

1) Age group. Less than 18 year above 18 year

2) Are you aware about voting right? Yes No

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3) Do you have voter ID card? Yes No

4) Do you go for voting? Yes No

5) Do you promote your familys member for voting? Yes No

6) Please indicate your agreement with the statement below & please use on the following attribute on a scale of 1 to 5 (1= strongly agree, 2= agree, 3= no opinion, 4=disagree, 5= strongly disagree). What is perception towards election? They are1 (a) Not interested (b) Too busy (c) I dont know whom to vote (d) My vote dont count (e) Fear of voting (f) Dont like any of the candidates (g) Religious reasons (h) Job schedule (i) Waste of time & effort (j) Doesnt make difference (k) Out of town or away from home (l) Inconvenient hours, polling place (m)Trust of youth towards politicians is less (n) Due to scams done by the politicians (o) Dictatorship of politicians 2 3 4 5

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Any other (please specify) 7) Gender of respondents:8) Your Occupation:9) Your Home place ___________________________________________ Female Businessman Other Rural Male Student Employed Urban

APPENDIX- 2 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Hypothesis formulation

Null hypothesis - All the factors are equally important in my research. Alternative hypothesis - In our study we obtained "an approximate chi-square 563.583 with an observed significance level which is 0.00. It is small enough to reject the null hypothesis. We can conclude that the strength of the relationship among the variables is strong and appropriate for factor analysis. Where we find alternative hypothesis is accepted. Which is we can say the research is going to good.

Factor Analysis
Factor analysis is used to find latent variables or factors among observed variables. In other words, if your data contains many variables, you can use factor analysis to reduce the number of variables. Factor analysis groups variables with similar characteristics together. With factor analysis you can produce a small number of factors from a large number of variables which is capable of explaining the observed variance in the larger number of variables. The reduced factors can also be used for further analysis.
KMO and Bartlett's Test (table no.1)

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square Df Sig.

.782 563.583 105 .000

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Interpretation:
The KMO & Bartletts test measures the sampling adequacy which should be greater than 0.5 for a satisfactory factor analysis to proceed. Looking at the table the KMO measure is 0.782. From the above table, we can see that the Bartlett's test of sphericity is significant. That is, its associated probability is more than 0.05. In fact, it is actually 0.000. This means that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. (Table no.2)
Communalities Initial Please rate the factors. not interested Please rate the factors. too busy please rate the factors I don't know whom to vote Please rate the factors. My vote don't count Please rate the factors. Fear of voting Please rate the factors. Dont like any of the candidates Please rate the factors. Religious reasons Please rate the factors. Job schedule Please rate the factors. Waste of time& effort Please rate the factors. Doesnt make difference Please rate the factors. Out of town or away from home Please rate the factors. Inconvenient hours, polling place Please rate the factors. Trust of youth towards politicians is less Please rate the factors. Due to scams done by the politicians Please rate the factors. Dictatorship of politicians Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 Extraction .530 .535 .445 .560 .515 .451 .602 .644 .651 .593 .548

Interpretation
The table of which communalities

shows how much of the variance in the variables has been accounted for by the extracted factors (As we have considered Eigen value 1). For instance 12 factors are accounted while 3

1.000

.398

1.000

.661

1.000 1.000

.751 .615

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factors arent accounted over all15 factor. Because we consider Eigen value above 0.5 so these 3 factors can impact on my research.
(Table no.3)

Total Variance Explained Extraction Sums of Squared Initial Eigen values Compon ent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Total 4.255 1.779 1.294 1.171 .890 .856 .767 .676 .661 .575 .541 .463 .386 .372 .315 % of Variance 28.365 11.860 8.628 7.805 5.930 5.707 5.113 4.504 4.407 3.830 3.604 3.089 2.573 2.483 2.103 Cumulative % 28.365 40.225 48.853 56.657 62.588 68.294 73.407 77.911 82.318 86.148 89.752 92.841 95.415 97.897 100.000 Total 4.255 1.779 1.294 1.171 Loadings % of Variance 28.365 11.860 8.628 7.805 Cumulative % 28.365 40.225 48.853 56.657 Total 2.720 2.139 2.067 1.573 Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings % of Variance 18.133 14.262 13.778 10.485 Cumulative % 18.133 32.395 46.172 56.657

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Interpretation
The above table shows all the factors extractable from the analysis along with their Eigen values, the percent of variance attributable to each factor, and the cumulative variance of the factor and the previous factors. Notice that the first factor accounts for 28.365% of the variance, the second

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11.860%, the third 8.628% and forth 7.805%. Where we observe in these four factor 56.657% of the data is correct and adequate and all the remaining factors are not significant.

Interpretation
The scree plot is a graph of the Eigen values against all the factors. The graph is useful for determining how many factors to retain. The point of interest is where the curve starts to flatten. It can be seen that the curve begins to flatten between factors 4 and 5. Note also that factor 5 has an Eigen value of less than 1, so only four factors have been retained. (Table no.4)

Rotated Component Matrix Component

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1 Please rate the factors. not interested Please rate the factors. too busy please rate the factors I don't know whom to vote Please rate the factors. my vote don't count Please rate the factors. Fear of voting Please rate the factors. dont like any of the candidates Please rate the factors. religious reasons Please rate the factors. job schedule Please rate the factors. Waste of time& effort Please rate the factors. doesnt make difference Please rate the factors. Out of town or away from home Please rate the factors. Inconvenient hours, polling place Please rate the factors. Trust of youth towards politicians is less Please rate the factors. Due to scams done by the politicians Please rate the factors. Dictatorship of politicians Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations. .617 .646 .236 .673 .168 .347 .014 .177 .761 .736 .044 .295 .027 .087 .126 2 .354 .154 .609 .326 .592 .476 .187 .034 -.102 .206 .729 .455 .278 -.145 .102 3 .013 .159 -.036 .031 -.053 .296 .050 .038 .142 .021 .122 .212 .761 .850 .750 4 .155 .262 .131 -.020 .365 -.124 .751 .781 .203 -.090 -.003 .244 -.060 .017 .162

Interpretation

The idea of rotation is to reduce the number factors on which the variables under investigation have high loadings. Rotation does not actually change anything but makes the interpretation of the analysis easier. Looking at the table above, we can see that youth are not interested, they are too busy, feel my vote don't count, Waste of time& effort and doesnt make difference are substantially loaded on Component 1 while I don't know whom to vote, they feel Fear of voting, and they live Out of town or away from home are substantially loaded on Factor 2. And Trust of youth towards politicians is less, Due to scams done by the politicians and Dictatorship of politicians are substantially loaded on Factor 3 while religious reasons and job schedule these remaining variables are substantially loaded on Factor 4. These factors can be used as variables for further analysis. 1). Component- Employee

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2).Component- Uneducated 3).Component - Corruption 4).Component Orthodox
(Table no 5) Component Transformation Matrix Compo nent 1 2 3 4 1 .694 -.220 -.516 .451 2 .553 -.193 .126 -.800 3 .343 .935 .087 .025 4 .306 -.201 .843 .393

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

Question no.1 (table 6)

Frequency Table
age of the respondent Cumulative Frequency Valid above 18 150 Percent 100.0 Valid Percent 100.0 Percent 100.0

Interpretation
I had selected in my empirical research above 18th year age group youth person because only

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those person can vote in election that above 18 year (according election commission of India).

(Question no.2 table 7)

Are you aware about voting rights? Cumulative Frequency Valid Yes No Total 147 3 150 Percent 98.0 2.0 100.0 Valid Percent 98.0 2.0 100.0 Percent 98.0 100.0

Interpretation
After age,

we

observed

that

98%youth are aware about voting right only 2% youth are not aware about voting right.

(Question no.3 table 8)

Do you have voter id card? Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

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Valid Yes No Total 106 44 150 70.7 29.3 100.0 70.7 29.3 100.0 70.7 100.0

Interpretation
We observed that 70%youths have voter ID card but approximately 30% youth are without card, but these youth may use other ID card for identification in election time.

(Question no. 4 table 9) do you go for voting?

Cumulative Frequency Valid Yes No Total 95 55 150 Percent 63.3 36.7 100.0 Valid Percent 63.3 36.7 100.0 Percent 63.3 100.0

Interpretation We observed that 63% youth

go for voting while approximately 37% youth dont go for voting in presently.

Do you promote your family's member' for voting?

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Cumulative Frequency Valid Yes No Total 121 29 150 Percent 80.7 19.3 100.0 Valid Percent 80.7 19.3 100.0 Percent 80.7 100.0

(Question no. 5 table 10)

Interpretation
We observed that 81% youth promote his familys member for voting while 19% youth a promote his family members. (Question no.7 table 11)

Gender of respondents Cumulative Frequency Valid male female Total 114 36 150 Percent 76.0 24.0 100.0 Valid Percent 76.0 24.0 100.0 Percent 76.0 100.0

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Interpretation
In my research had joined males & females where 76% males & 24 % females.

(Question no. 8 table 12)

Your Occupation Cumulative Frequency Valid student businessman Total 148 2 150 Percent 98.7 1.3 100.0 Valid Percent 98.7 1.3 100.0 Percent 98.7 100.0

Interpretation

All respondents are student in my research who concern with schools or colleges

Your Home place Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

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Valid urban rural Total 121 29 150 80.7 19.3 100.0 80.7 19.3 100.0 80.7 100.0

(Question no. 9 table 13)

Interpretation

These respondents mostly belong from urban 81% and 19% rural areas.