Migration hit Almora & Pauri districts have lowest voter turnouts
Wednesday, 16 February 2022 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
The initial data of voter turnout in the assembly elections of 2022 released by the election commission (EC) clearly show that in spite of the voter awareness drive of EC the polling percent in many constituencies of Uttarakhand is a cause of worry.
A close look at the data shows that the effect of migration on voting percentage is quite apparent. The data shows that the districts facing the maximum brunt of migration exhibit low voter turnout.
Almora district reported a voting percentage of 52.82 which is lowest in the state. Similarly Pauri district was one step higher than Almora with 54.14 per cent voter turnout.
In Pauri 56.92 percent voters had exercised their franchise in the assembly elections of 2012 which dropped to 54.58 per cent in 2017. It has again marginally dropped but this time.
There are six assembly constituencies in Pauri district and here too the effect of migration is clearly visible in the voting pattern. In Chaubattakhal, Lansdowne and Pauri assemblies where maximum migration is said to have occurred from the villages, the vote percentage was only 44.27, 46.04 and 48.9. In their comparison, constituencies like Kotdwar which has a high urban population and is spread in a plain area, the voting per cent was 60.83 which is highest in the Pauri district.
The data of the EC shows that in Salt constituency which covers remote and mountainous terrain of Almora district, the vote percentage was only 41 per cent. This is the lowest constituency wise voter turnout in the state.
For those who tend to connect literacy with the awareness for voting then these two districts can be exceptions because both of them have high literacy rates. The census of 2011 put the literacy rate of Pauri and Almora at 82 and 80 percent respectively.
The analysts blame migration as the reason for low voting percentage. They point out that there is a big population of people who don’t reside in the villages as they have migrated to cities in search of jobs but they are still registered in the voter list or prefer to remain in electoral rolls of their native places for many reasons. These people remain absent on the day of voting thus pulling down the vote percentage.
“There are many people in our village who are working and living in cities like Delhi and Dehradun but are in electoral rolls here. On the day of voting some of them turned up for voting but the majority stayed away,’’ said Sumitra Devi of Juva village located in Lansdowne constituency. She said that many people living outside are registered in the electoral rolls for reasons like getting domicile certificates.
Manoj Negi of Bantholi village of Chaubattakhal assembly pointed out that due to reduction in population the authorities have shifted the polling station to a nearby village due to which reluctant voters and elderly preferred to stay in the village instead of trekking to other villages.
