At a time when debates and discussions are happening about what should be done to encourage more voters to turn up to exercise their franchise, Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) has said that 80% of the techies in Hyderabad couldn’t partake in the electoral process as they were working from home. TITA was started in the year 2010 by IT veterans who hail from Telangana. It is a non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO), working for the welfare of Telangana IT students, IT employees & IT employers.
Acknowledging that those from the IT industry have shown lesser inclination for voting, TITA’s Global President Sundeep Makthala said, “Over 80% of employees working in the IT sector stayed away from voting in the civic polls due to many reasons. There is an urgent need to address the concerns of the techies in order to help them take part in the democratic process and subsequently increase polling percentage in future elections.”
According to TITA, around 5.82 lakh employees were working in Hyderabad’s IT sector and a majority of them are now in their hometowns because companies have declared a work-from-home arrangement. According to Sundeep, this has led to a sharp decline in the voting percentage. Sandeep also conveyed that only 25% of the IT workforce is from Hyderabad. Those from other states are not very concerned about the civic polls.
What is the solution?
Sundeep Kumar feels that in order to address the issue of low turnout in polling, techies should be given the option of casting their vote online or through the postal ballot system, this will ensure a higher turnout of voters.
Hyderabad recorded a voter turnout of 46.6% in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls held on December 1. Expressing disappointment about the low voter turnout, Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar had suggested that those who vote should probably be given incentives and tax benefits. He felt this seems to be the only practical way forward to encourage more people to come forward and exercise their franchise.