Class 8 Social Science Chapter 5: Universal Franchise and India's Electoral System

A decision taken at the start

When the Constitution was being written, its makers had to decide who would be allowed to vote. Many countries had reached a wide franchise slowly, in stages, extending it to one group after another over decades. India's Constitution makers decided that every adult would vote from the very beginning. That is the decision this topic is about.

What the phrase actually says

Universal adult franchise means two things, and it is worth separating them. A single vote belongs to each adult citizen. No vote counts for more than another. The first is about who is included. The second is about whether some votes count for more than others, and the answer is that none does.

Franchise, and its synonym

Franchise means a right conferred by a constitution or by a government. Suffrage carries the same meaning and is often used instead. Both are worth knowing, because you will meet either of them in a newspaper report about any country's elections.

What the word universal rules out

Every Indian citizen of eighteen or over holds the right to vote. Caste, creed, race, religion, gender, schooling and income make no difference to it. That list is what the word universal is doing. It does not mean there are no conditions at all; it means that none of those distinctions is allowed to be one.

The conditions that do apply

Three remain. You must be eighteen. Your name has to appear on the roll of the constituency where you live, because an election is run constituency by constituency and the list is what proves entitlement. And a person found guilty of certain serious crimes is barred from voting.

Nobody votes for anybody else

The chapter states this plainly: no one can vote on another's behalf. It is easy to read past, and it is the reason for several things later in the chapter, including the inked finger and the signature at the polling booth. A vote belongs to one person.

Eighteen, and what it used to be

The minimum age was twenty-one until 1988, when it was lowered to eighteen. This is a useful thing to know, because it shows that the rules of a franchise are decisions rather than facts of nature. Somebody argued for the change, and somebody had to agree.

Where universal franchise applies

Article 326 of the Constitution covers it, and the reach is wide. Its scope takes in the Lok Sabha, the legislature of each state and union territory, and the polls held in villages and cities besides. It is not a rule for national elections alone.

How many representatives that means

Roughly 3.1 million people hold elected office in this country. About 1.3 million of them are women, and they sit in upwards of 250,000 bodies of local government. Every one of those posts is filled by universal adult franchise. The figure is worth holding, because it says that most Indian democracy happens below the national level.

The size of one general election

When the country voted in the summer of 2024, more than 968 million people were entitled to choose members for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. The chapter offers two comparisons for the scale of that. India's electorate outnumbers Britain's entire population roughly fifteen times over, and the country covers about six times the ground France does.

Why that scale is a problem to solve

A country that large and that varied cannot be polled by one simple arrangement. Geographic diversity is itself a difficulty: mountains, islands and remote settlements all have voters in them. The election has to be organised with that complexity in mind, which is what the rest of this chapter is about.

Reaching the last voter

The Election Commission has taken a series of accessibility measures with one aim, which is that nobody entitled to vote is passed over. Officials make the journey to remote places so that every citizen can use the right. The chapter mentions a polling station organised for a single woman voter, which is the clearest illustration of the principle.

What was new in 2024

Three things. For the first time, voters who were elderly or disabled were able to vote without leaving home. Voting by post was opened to certain classes of voter. And measures to assist appeared: voter cards printed in braille, and requests through an app for help such as a wheelchair or a ramp.

Why those measures follow from the principle

Go back to the second half of the definition: all votes have equal value. If a voter cannot reach a booth, that voter's vote is worth less in practice than somebody else's, whatever the Constitution says. Each of these measures removes a barrier rather than granting a favour.

The gap between a right and its use

Here is the uncomfortable figure. Roughly 34 per cent of those entitled stayed away in the 2024 polls. The right was there and about a third of those entitled did not exercise it, which raises a question the chapter asks directly: what stops people, and what would change it?

A right, and a responsibility

That gap is why the chapter calls the vote a responsibility as well as a right. Universal adult franchise is described as the cornerstone of Indian democracy, and a cornerstone that is not used holds nothing up. Voter awareness is treated as part of the right rather than as an optional extra.

Scenario:

A class is shown three things the Election Commission did in 2024. Officials travelled to remote places so that nobody was left out, including a polling station opened for a single woman voter. People who were elderly or disabled could vote from home for the first time. Braille voter cards were issued and wheelchairs could be requested through an app. The class is asked whether a polling station for one person is a sensible use of public money, and what principle would be given up by closing it.

Analysis:

Equal value is a claim about every vote, not most votes. The measures in this chapter are what that claim costs when a country is this large and this varied.

Activity:

Find out how far the nearest polling station is from your home, and who in your area would find that distance hard.

Title:

Work out your own waiting time

Safety:

Arithmetic only; nothing is needed beyond paper.

What You Notice:

The waiting time is a fact about you, and the age limit is a decision somebody made in 1988.

Elected office in India is held by some 3.1 million people, around 1.3 million of them women, spread over more than a quarter of a million local bodies, every one of them chosen by universal adult franchise.

India's eligible voters number about fifteen times the whole population of the United Kingdom, and the country is roughly six times the area of France.

A polling station was organised in 2024 for a single woman voter, so that no voter would be left behind.

What the franchise promises — ONE EACH, ALL EQUAL — Every adult citizen has one vote, and no vote counts for more than any other.

The three conditions — AGE, ROLL, RECORD — Eighteen or over, registered in a constituency, and not convicted of certain serious crimes.

A classroom election, taken seriously

The chapter explains the machinery of an election through a Grade 8 class choosing its representative. The choice of example is a good one. Every part that matters in a general election is present in miniature, and small enough to see whole.

The three candidates

Three students stood. Ahmed's promise was cleaner classrooms and a cleaner playground. Gurmat cared about classmates learning better and put forward a scheme of coaching and support between peers. Ravi wanted the timetable to make more room for music, theatre and the visual arts.

An officer, separate from the candidates

The class teacher was appointed Election Officer. Her job was not to prefer anybody but to make the process fair, transparent and run by the rules. That separation is the first structural feature worth noticing: the person organising the election is not one of the people competing in it.

Three different ways of campaigning

Ahmed went in for posters. Gurmat took to the noticeboard and to talking with classmates face to face. Ravi put on a music performance at lunchtime to argue the case for the arts. Nothing in the rules required them to campaign the same way, and each method suited the argument being made.

Explaining the rules in advance

Nobody would know who had voted for whom, and the Election Officer made sure the class understood that before any voting began, explaining how the secret ballot would work. She then set up voting booths in a corner of the classroom.

Why secrecy matters so much

This is the point most easily misread. A secret ballot is not politeness about a private matter. It is what makes the choice free. If other people can find out how you voted, you can be rewarded or punished for it, and then the vote is no longer yours. Secrecy protects the voter, not the result.

Voting day, and a sealed box

Each student received a ballot paper listing the three candidates and marked an X beside their choice. A ballot paper in braille was prepared for a classmate who needed one, which is the same principle as the braille voter cards in a general election. The ballots went into a box, and the box was sealed until the counting. Between the voting and the counting there is a gap, and a sealed box is what makes that gap safe. Anyone can see whether a seal has been broken. The procedure is designed so that trust does not have to rest on trusting a particular person.

A witness for the counting

The teacher called a colleague from the next class to watch the count. Think about why. A count that only the organiser sees cannot be checked by anyone else, however honest the organiser is. Real counts have observers present for exactly this reason.

The result, and the arithmetic

Thirty-three votes were cast. One ballot paper was unmarked and was therefore declared invalid. Ahmed's total came to 8, Ravi's to 10, and Gurmat's to 12. Gurmat had the most and was declared the new Class Representative. Look carefully at that. She won with 12 votes out of 32 valid ones, which is nowhere near half. She won because she had more than anybody else. This is the arithmetic of the system India uses in its own elections, and the next topic names it.

What happened after the result

Gurmat thanked the class and undertook to do what she had said she would. The other two offered their congratulations and their help. The chapter treats this as part of the process rather than as good manners: an election settles who holds an office, and the work of everybody else continues.

The option of refusing everybody

Suppose a student wanted none of the three. An unmarked paper would simply be invalid, as one was. Some countries, India among them, provide another option: NOTA, meaning None Of The Above, which lets a voter reject every candidate on the paper.

What NOTA does and does not do

It does not change the result. What it does is record that voters wanted better choices, which an invalid ballot cannot distinguish from a mistake. The chapter describes NOTA as quiet but genuinely powerful in a democracy, and the distinction between a spoilt paper and a deliberate rejection is the whole of its point.

Much older than the ballot box

Transparent selection of representatives is not a recent import. The Uttaramerur inscriptions of the tenth century describe a process in detail. The names of those qualified to stand were inscribed on pieces of palm leaf, dropped into a pot, and the pot was then sealed.

How that selection worked

On the day, the pot was opened in public. A young boy drew the palm leaves out one at a time at random. A respected person, having first shown the crowd his empty hands, read out each selected name. Every step there exists to let onlookers verify what happened, which is the same instinct as the sealed box and the witness.

The real polling station: four steps

A general election has the same logic with more people. The first polling officer checks your name against the voter list and your proof of identity. The second inks your finger, gives you a chit and takes your signature. The third takes the chit and checks your finger, and NOTA is available here too.

The machine, and the slip

Then you press the button on the electronic voting machine, and you hear a beep confirming the vote. You also check the printed slip in the VVPAT, which stands for Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. It produces a physical paper record so that a voter can see the electronic vote was cast correctly.

Why a paper trail exists at all

Because an electronic record alone cannot be checked by the person who made it. The paper trail is a backup for verification and for recounting if there is a dispute or if the electronic system fails. It is the same purpose the sealed box served in the classroom, in a different technology.

Indian machines, used elsewhere

The machines and the VVPAT system have been used in Namibia and Bhutan with support from the Election Commission of India. Other countries have studied the technology and received training from India in order to adopt it. The arrangements in this topic are an Indian export.

Scenario:

A Grade 8 class elects its representative. Three candidates stand: Ahmed on cleanliness, Gurmat on peer coaching, Ravi on more time for the arts. The teacher acts as Election Officer, explains the secret ballot, and sets up booths. A braille ballot is prepared for a classmate who needs one. Thirty-three ballots are cast and one is unmarked, so it is invalid. Ahmed gets 8, Gurmat 12, Ravi 10. Gurmat is declared elected. A reader is asked whether twelve out of thirty-three is enough to win.

Analysis:

An election decides who holds an office; it does not end the electorate's work. The arithmetic here is the same arithmetic that lets a Member of Parliament win a seat without half the votes.

Activity:

Hold a vote on something in your class with three options, and work out afterwards what share the winner actually had.

Title:

Run the four steps in order

Safety:

Writing only; nothing sharp is needed.

What You Notice:

The ink and the signature both guard against the same thing, which is why two officers do two different checks.

The Uttaramerur inscriptions of the tenth century describe names written on palm leaf fragments, sealed in a pot, and drawn in public by a young boy.

The person who read out the selected names at Uttaramerur first showed the crowd his empty hands, so that nobody could suspect a concealed name.

Namibia and Bhutan have used Indian electronic voting machines and the VVPAT system with support from the Election Commission of India.

The four steps at a booth — CHECK, INK, CHIT, PRESS — Name and identity checked, finger inked and a chit given, chit taken and finger checked, then the button pressed and the slip read.

What each safeguard protects — SECRET FOR THE VOTER, SEAL FOR THE RESULT — Secrecy keeps the choice free; the seal and the witness keep the count checkable.

Somebody has to run it

The previous topic showed an election working because a separate person organised it by the rules. Scale that classroom up to a country of a billion people and the separate person becomes an institution. In India that institution is the Election Commission.

Where it comes from

The Constitution itself creates it. Article 324 places the superintendence, direction and control of elections in the hands of a commission, and it began work on 25 January 1950, a day before the Constitution came into force. India now marks that date every year as National Voters' Day.

The three commissioners

The Commission consists of a Chief Election Commissioner and such other Election Commissioners as are appointed. For most of its early decades there was one person; since 1993 it has worked as a body of three, who decide by majority when they disagree.

Independence, built into the rules

A referee who can be dismissed by one of the players is not a referee. So the Chief Election Commissioner cannot be removed except in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court. Nor can the conditions of service be changed to anybody's disadvantage once appointed.

What the Commission actually does

It conducts elections to the Lok Sabha, to the Rajya Sabha, to every state legislative assembly and council, and to the offices of President and Vice President. Local body elections are not its work; those belong to State Election Commissions.

Keeping the list

Its least glamorous job is the most important one. The electoral roll is the list of who may vote, and the Commission prepares and revises it, adds citizens as they turn eighteen, removes the dead and corrects what is wrong. A right to vote is worth nothing if your name is missing.

Parties and symbols

The Commission registers political parties and recognises some as national or state parties. It also allots each one a symbol, which matters more than it sounds: a voter who cannot read the names on a machine can still find the party by its picture.

The Model Code of Conduct

From the moment elections are announced until the results are declared, a Model Code of Conduct binds parties and candidates. It is the Commission's sharpest everyday instrument, and most of what it forbids is about one thing: a party in office must not use the state's resources to win.

What the Code forbids

Ministers may not announce new schemes, grants or projects once the campaign period begins. Government vehicles, buildings and staff may not be used for campaigning. Public money may not pay for advertisements praising the party in power.

And what it forbids everybody

No candidate may appeal for votes on grounds of caste or religion, bribe or intimidate voters, or hold a meeting or procession without permission. Campaigning stops forty-eight hours before polling closes, so that voters have a quiet period in which to decide.

Why a code rather than a law

Much of it is not statute. It works because the Commission can act at once, and because a public rebuke in the middle of a campaign costs a party more than a case decided years later. Speed is the point.

The size of the task

The numbers are hard to take in. The Indian electorate is close to a billion people, spread over more than a million polling stations. The Commission tries to ensure that no voter has to travel more than two kilometres to reach one of them.

Polling stations in impossible places

That rule produces some remarkable stations. One stands in the Gir forest for a single priest, and another was set up at over 15,000 feet in Ladakh. Booths in the Sundarbans are reached by boat, and some by elephant where no road goes. A station is opened for one voter if one voter lives there.

Who runs it on the day

The Commission has a small permanent staff of its own. On polling day it borrows millions of government teachers and clerks. They become polling officers under its control rather than their own department's. Police forces are moved between states as well, so that nobody guards a booth in the neighbourhood where they live.

Observers

The Commission also appoints observers who answer only to it: general observers for the conduct of the poll, expenditure observers to watch what candidates spend, and police observers where trouble is expected. They are the sealed box and the witness, in institutional form.

A commissioner who used the powers

T. N. Seshan, Chief Election Commissioner from 1990 to 1996, is remembered for treating the Commission's powers as real. He enforced the Model Code strictly, countermanded polls where he found malpractice, and insisted that candidates account for what they spent.

The photo identity card

His most visible change was the voter photo identity card, pushed through against considerable resistance. A card with a photograph on it makes impersonation hard, and impersonation had been one of the commonest ways of stealing an election.

What the Commission cannot do

It is worth being clear about the limits. The Commission cannot make a party choose good candidates, cannot stop a voter being persuaded by a bad argument, and cannot legislate. It can only see that the contest is run fairly, which is a smaller job than making politics good and a necessary one.

Scenario:

An election officer receives four complaints in a week. A candidate has handed out sarees and household appliances to women voters. Government officials have been seen campaigning for the ruling party. One candidate has used abusive language about a rival. Bundles of five-hundred-rupee notes have been found in a candidate's car during an inspection. The officer must say which part of the Model Code each one offends. Then he must say what all four of them have in common, because the answer to that is what the code is really for.

Analysis:

A code of conduct is readable as a list of prohibitions or as a single principle. The principle here is that an election should turn on what candidates say, not on what they can spend or command.

Activity:

Find one rule from the Model Code in the news and write down what it is protecting.

Title:

Put the officers in their places

Safety:

Drawing only; no sharp instruments are needed.

What You Notice:

One body reaches from Delhi to a single constituency, which is how a million polling stations open on the same morning.

A polling station was once opened in the Gir forest for a single voter, a priest living there, because no voter should have to travel more than two kilometres.

Polling stations have been set up above 15,000 feet in Ladakh, and booths in the Sundarbans are reached by boat while others are reached by elephant.

The Election Commission began work on 25 January 1950, one day before the Constitution of India came into force.

What the Commission does — ROLL, SYMBOL, CODE, POLL — Keeps the list of voters, allots party symbols, enforces the Model Code, and conducts the poll itself.

What protects its independence — A JUDGE'S DOOR, A FIXED SALARY, ITS OWN EYES — Removal only as for a judge, service conditions that cannot be worsened, and observers who report to the Commission alone.

Not one election but several

People speak of "the election" as though there were only one. In fact India runs several different kinds, and they do not all work the same way. Some offices you vote for directly. Others are filled by people you elected, voting on your behalf.

The Lok Sabha

The House of the People has 543 elected members. Each one is chosen directly by the voters of a single constituency, and the House normally lasts five years. This is the election most people mean when they talk about a general election.

One seat, one winner

Within a constituency the rule is simple. Whoever receives more votes than anybody else wins the seat. There is no second round, and no requirement to reach half. This is the arithmetic Gurmat's twelve votes out of thirty-three illustrated in the class election.

What that system is called

It is known as first past the post. The name comes from racing: the runner who crosses the line first wins, and by how much does not matter. It is quick to count and easy to understand, and it has one awkward consequence.

The awkward consequence

A member can hold a seat that most of the constituency voted against. If four candidates share the vote, the winner may have barely a third of it. The system rewards being ahead, not being preferred by a majority, and that is a real criticism of it.

Why India kept it anyway

Because the alternatives cost something too. First past the post gives every constituency one identifiable representative to hold responsible, and it usually produces a government that can actually command the House. Those are not small advantages in a country of this size.

State assemblies, and reserved seats

The same method elects the Vidhan Sabha of each state. Voters in each assembly constituency choose one member directly, for a term of five years. A state's assembly is, in miniature, the Lok Sabha of that state. Some constituencies are reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, in both the Lok Sabha and the assemblies. Every voter in such a constituency still votes. What is restricted is who may stand, not who may choose.

The Rajya Sabha, elected differently

The Council of States is not elected by you at all. Its members are chosen by the elected members of each state's legislative assembly. So your vote for an MLA is also, indirectly, a vote about who represents your state in the upper House.

A House that never dissolves

The Rajya Sabha is permanent. Members serve six years, and one third of them retire every two years, so there is never a moment when the House does not exist. Twelve more members are nominated by the President for distinction in literature, science, art or social service.

Why have a second House at all

A directly elected House answers to the mood of the moment, which is its strength and its weakness. A House elected differently and renewed in thirds slows things down, and gives the states a voice as states rather than as collections of constituencies.

The President

The electoral college that elects the President is made up of the elected members of every state assembly, together with the elected members of both Houses of Parliament. Their votes are not equal in value. An MLA's vote is weighted according to the population of the state.

Why the weighting exists

Without it, a small state's legislators would count for as much as a large state's, and the President would not reflect the country's population. With it, the states and the Union both have a share. The Vice President is elected by the members of both Houses of Parliament.

What still goes wrong: money

The chapter is honest about the problems. Elections cost a great deal, and candidates who can spend heavily have an advantage over those who cannot. The Commission sets expenditure limits and appoints observers, but money remains the hardest of these problems to solve.

Candidates with criminal cases

A second problem is candidates facing serious criminal charges. Every candidate must now file an affidavit declaring assets, debts, education and any criminal cases pending. The information is public, which transfers the decision to the voter rather than removing the candidate.

Appeals that divide

A third is campaigning on caste, religion or community. The Model Code forbids asking for votes on these grounds. An appeal of that kind asks a voter to vote as a member of a group, rather than as a citizen weighing what is actually being proposed.

Rumour, and the speed of it

Misleading claims spread faster than they can be corrected, and a false story about a candidate can do its work before anybody answers it. This is newer than the other problems and nobody has solved it. Checking a claim before passing it on is the only defence a voter actually holds.

Staying away

The last problem is the quietest. When people do not bother to vote, the result is decided by those who did, and complaints afterwards carry little weight. A low turnout is not neutral. It hands the decision to somebody else.

What a voter can actually do

Register as soon as you turn eighteen, check your name on the roll, read what candidates have declared, test a claim before believing it, and vote. None of that requires any special position. All of it is what universal adult franchise means in practice.

Scenario:

A student lists the people who do not vote in a Presidential election. The twelve nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are excluded. So are nominated members of state assemblies, all members of legislative councils in states with two chambers, and nominated members from Delhi and Puducherry. The student then notices something odd. These same people do vote for the Vice President. Why should one office draw the line in a different place from the other? Both are chosen by an electoral college, and both use the same voting system.

Analysis:

An exclusion list is often the clearest statement of a principle. Here it says that the authority to choose a head of state must be traceable back to a voter.

Activity:

Find out whether your state has one chamber or two, and who sits in the second if it has one.

Title:

Chart the four elections

Safety:

Writing only; nothing sharp is required.

What You Notice:

Two of the four are direct and two are not, and the method tracks whom the office is meant to answer to.

Twelve members of the Rajya Sabha are not elected at all. They are nominated by the President for distinction in literature, science, art or social service.

A vote in a presidential election is not worth the same everywhere: an MLA's vote is weighted according to the population of that legislator's state.

The Rajya Sabha has never been dissolved, because a third of its seats fall vacant every second year instead of the whole House going to the polls at once.

Who elects what — YOU, THEN THEY — You elect the Lok Sabha and your assembly directly. They, the people you elected, go on to fill the Rajya Sabha and the two highest offices.

The open problems — MONEY, CASES, DIVISION, RUMOUR, ABSENCE — Heavy spending, candidates facing charges, appeals to caste or religion, misleading claims, and people who do not vote.