As the founder of Young India Foundation (YIF), Sudhanshu Kaushik is clear about what he is seeking for the country’s youth – increased participation in Indian politics. And by that he means their participation as voters as well as active politicians. With about 65 percent of India’s 1.38 billion strong population being under 30 years old, according to the 2021 World Population Review, this issue is more important now than ever, he feels.
“We aim to help young people between the ages of 21 and 30 actually get on the ballot,” Kaushik said in an exclusive interview with Village Square. “While there is inherent interest to do so, there are a lot of complexities, whether it’s about filing the nominations or to helping them understand booth management and other nuances of contesting elections.”
And Young India Foundation does it all for free, whether it’s helping contestants with social media campaigns, manifesto making or even wearing a sari to make speeches. Also a big part of their initiative is urging the young voters to cast their ballot.
“There are about 9 crore people in India aged between 18 and 30 years who do not vote. And this is more of an urban issue than a rural issue,” the 28-year-old alumnus of Oxford and NYU added, pointing out that it’s the young voters from villages who spend their own money and travel for miles on two-wheelers to cast their vote, while the city-dwellers couldn’t care less.
“And it’s not about a lack of interest in the youth. If you make the system more accessible, they would of course be interested, and that is what we are trying for,” said Kaushik, who has also recently written a book, The Future is Ours.
For someone born to a politician dad – his father Dinesh Kaushik is an independent politician and current Member of Legislative Assembly from Pundri constituency in Haryana – Kaushik knows that he got a head start even though he was born and raised in Alabama, United States.
“Anything that I have known about politics, the fact that I am able to discuss booth management and the other subtleties of politics comes from the sheer fact that I was born in a political family,” he said, talking about how since his father fought elections as an independent candidate, they had to do everything themselves. “I even had to learn Devanagari by myself,” he laughed.
Ahead of the 2024 general elections, the founder of the Young India Foundation hopes to see a larger representation of youth as parliamentarians and MLAs. “Even if that doesn’t happen, we wish political parties would be more reflective, and nominate more young people as their candidates,” he said.
Also Read: Why urban youth should care about rural India
Pallavi Srivastava is Associate Director – Content at Village Square.
