Imagined Homelands | Migration Coming in the Way of Voting?

India, today, is not only the world’s largest democracy but also the country with the largest migrating population.

How do migrants participate in the political process?

(Photo Courtesy: India Migration Now/Altered by The Quint)

Imagined Homelands is a collaboration between The Quint and India Migration Now. This podcast series aims to look at the lives of migrants and problems of immigration.

Since we’re in the thick of the election season, we spoke to migrant voters across India and abroad. How is the voter participation among migrants voters in India which is not only the world’s largest democracy but also the most mobile? Tune in!

There’s a constant movement from rural to urban, from city to city and guess how many migrants there are in the country roughly? 400 millions!

That makes India the country with both the largest migrating population and the largest voting population. And chances are, a good percentage of those who are listening to the podcast are migrants, working or studying in a city or state you were not born in! But for a lot of people being a migrant means better luck casting your vote next time!

Yet, there is little that we see the government doing in terms of addressing this issue with evidence based policy-making. To make our democracy substantive and inclusive, we need a collective conversation about what the gaps in the system are and how they are to be fixed.

Follow India Migration Now on Twitter.

Music Courtesy:
Big Bang Fuzz