Participation Of Youth In Urban Local Body Elections In India

: The progress and development of the nation lies in the hands of young generation. The youth populace are the pillars of the society. India is a young nation as it comprises of greater number of youth populace. The political system of the country determine the growth and development of nation. The youth populace has significant features such as powerful decision making skill, innovative thinking, highly knowledgeable and educated. These dominant features will make them to shine in the political activities. The urban governance acts as an intermediary among the people and government. This study investigates the significance of youth populace in the urban local body elections in India. The research design is exploratory and descriptive in nature. The research performs a quantitative analysis using the SPSS version 23 software package, through survey assessment from youth respondents in Kochi, India. A structured questionnaire survey method is used to gather the data from the youth populace in Kochi. The main idea behind the survey method is to collect the data relating to the perception of youth populace regarding urban local body elections and their engagement in the political activities. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and ANOVA test are performed in the research. The outcomes of the study revealed that the youth populace are aware about the significance of urban local body elections. Furthermore, the study recommends that the challenges faced by the youth populace in the political system are to be eradicated and the opportunities should be provided to them in future elections.


Background of the study
Local body elections in India are the elections conducted to elect the local representatives in India. It follows the provision of 73 rd amendment of the states as well as union territory in the nation 1 . It is conducted by the state election commission. The main goal of constructing the local bodies are 2 :  Decentralisation in the democracy process  Power deconvolution India has been recognised as the largest democracy in the world. India has retained its vibrant democracy after independence. The successful democracy achieved through the people's rights to elect their representative by the voting process irrespective of gender, caste, race and class. India is a young nation. Young populace are significantly high in the nation. Youth is defined as the people aged among 15-24 years. It strengthen both physically as well as mentally in the nation. Youth are referred to as backbone of India. The future of nation lies in the hands of youth 3 . The youth participation in the politics are raised from years to years. Those class of people are aware of the electoral process and the present condition of government. Youth started to raise their voices against the violence offended to the other individuals 4 . They are actively participating in the election process and cast their votes to select the appropriate representative to the nation. The amendment of 61 in the year 1988 reduced the eligibility age of voters from 21 years to 18 years. It brings about the youth responsibility in the nation.

Figure 1. Government system in India 5
The government system in the nation are clearly illustrated through figure 1. It was established in Madras in the year 1688 followed by their establishment in Bombay as well as Calcutta in the year 1762. The urban local governance comprises of Municipal Corporation, council, nagar panchayat, and cantonment board and town area committee.

Significance of the study
Several investigators 6 have highlighted the youth participation in the electoral process. When the young people are becoming the representatives of the government, there will arise new energy around the nation. Those kind of people are more energetic and enthusiastic than the old people. They does not require support, as youth people can manage a critical situation easily. Their hard work and capability are required for the nation progress. They construct novel as well as innovative ideas that helps in the productivity. Youth people handles the work with the processed ideas and in turn help the development of nation. The youth bridge has a progressive thinking and can handle the issues raised from the old rituals effectively 7 . The urban election is also significant as the elected representative has a direct contact with the public as well as government. Therefore, the appropriate person should be elected in the urban local body election for the welfare of population.

Research Problem
Indian youth has become selfish, as they does not focuses on the nation rather than concentrating on one's self. Those kind of populace are highly educated and has sufficient employment opportunities. The young people forget their roles and responsibilities in politics and family. Youth revolution are raises and some people are suppressing the revolution. The young people are preferred to settle in abroad and target oriented. The parents does not need their children to involve in politics. They want their children to live safe, luxurious and carefree lives. Everyone is engaging for constructing their own future. The political atmosphere in India are degraded day by day. It is the responsibility of youth populace to involve in the politics and build-up the powerful nation.

Research Objectives
The present study emphasizes to estimate the influence of youth population in the urban local body elections in India. The main objectives of study are,

Research Hypothesis
The research hypotheses developed for research are as follows, Hypothesis 1 H1: Youth people are aware about the significance of urban local body elections. H10: Youth people does not aware about the significance of urban local body elections. Hypothesis 2 H3: Young and educated representative aids in constructing efficient urban local bodies H30: Young and educated representative does not aids in constructing efficient urban local bodies Hypothesis 3 H4: Youth populace faces challenges while engaging in the local body election H40: Youth populace does not faces any challenges while engaging in the local body election 1.5 Paper organization The paper is organized in the following manner in which Section 1 provides the elaborated introduction about concepts of urban local body election and the role of youth in electoral process. Also, the introduction section depicts the significance of research. The existing research scholarly works associated to the present study are reviewed in section 2. The current study research methodology is elucidated in section 3 and the analysis result is presented in section 4. The discussion and the limitation of the study is displayed in section 5. Finally, the section 6 briefs about the conclusion and future recommendation of study.

Perception of youth on Indian elections
Youth populace actually cast their vote in large numbers. It increase the youth participation in the election system. The youth living in the urban areas cares about their vote. They will also carry out the research about their representatives and decide the right person before voting . The economic as well as social condition regarding the job generation will be taken into account by the youth voters. The young people prefer young leaders as they aware about the present conditions, issues, unemployment, and nature of society. Education also play a significant role in case of young voters. The highly educated leaders are preferred over other leaders. It is essential for the nation to understand the perception of youth populace for the progress of nation.

Youth engagement in electoral process
India comprises two third of its populace below the age of thirty five years. Youth play a significant role in the politics. The existing study investigates the triumph of BJP -Bharatiya Janata Party in the parliamentary elections held on 2019 in India. The magnitude of victory does not retain with the consolidated gains in 2014 rather than added support beyond the traditional base. The young voters are responsible for the victory in the election. As the party never fails to attract this kind of populace. Young vote play an essential role in the victory of party. The young populace are highly satisfied with the overall performance of party for the past five years. The weaker opposition and poll strategy helps the part to taste the success in the election. It emerges as powerful party due to young voters. Therefore, the existing study clearly illustrates the significance of youth voters and their engagement in the electoral process.

Need of young and educated minds in urban local body elections
The young as well as educated people has progressive thinking about the nations. The education will bring the awareness of differentiating the good as well as bad circumstances. The existing study analyse the Brihanmumbai municipal corporation elections. It helps in evaluating the voting behaviour of the people in the urban election. It also provide the pathway to regulate policies for improving the voting behaviour of the populace. The outcome of the study reveals the young and educated populace are interested to cast their votes in the urban election. They actively participated in the local elections. It is easier to motivate this type of populace through innovative and novel election campaigns. Social media attracts the educated as well as young populace and describe their voting rights in the country. Therefore, the young and educated populace are required in the urban local body elections for the progress and development of nation.

Research Design
The quantitative method approach is adopted in this research. The quantitative research describes the occurrence by gathering numerical unchangeable detailed data which is being estimated by using mathematical related methods. This in turn provide statistics related to questions of what, when, where, how, how many and how much. It involves the logic, number and objective stance . The quantitative research analysis is an innovative research through which an investigator interrogates a particular question, gathers quantifiable data from respondents and it estimates those numbers by utilizing statistics and performs the inquiry in an objective and unbiased manner . The quantitative research uses survey and questionnaire method for the collection of primary data .The research uses the quantitative data which is gathered by means of questionnaires. The research instrument used in this study is questionnaire and it helps to capture the data regarding knowledge, information, and awareness in youth about the urban local body elections in India. The survey is conducted among the youth population in India. The structured questionnaire is framed on the basis of variables of research. The questionnaire is managed by means of research assistant.

Data collection
The research is conducted among the youth population of Kochi, Kerala in India who are willing to respond to survey. This is in turn aids for successful completion of this research. The survey is conducted by the researcher itself. The participants s urveyed for this study are within the youth population of Kochi, Kerala in India. Therefore, this makes the data collection process eas ier.

Sample size and population
A sampling approach is essential since, it is not always easy to congregate data from each and every unit of populace 8 . Hence, the process of choosing the appropriate sample size is must to decide the number of observations to incorporate in the statis tical sample. In addition to it, the sample size is the main characteristic for any empirical study and its main objective is to create an inference regarding the populace from the sample 9 . The sample size is described as the number of study units and participants that needs to be incorporated and is vital to encounter the research questions of study. A very large sample is sometimes will incur wastage of cost, resources and time. Meanwhile, the small sample size will not be adequate of producing reliable and conclusive outcomes 10 . Hence, it is vital for investigator to assess appropriate sample size to create reliable outcomes with the aid of statistical procedure 11 . Therefore, the present study pursues the convenience sampling strategy and encompasses the sample size of 120 youth population of Kochi, Kerala in India which is neither smaller nor bigger in order to attain the research purpose in an effective manner. The targeted populace comprises of youth population of Kochi in India. These particular group of people are selected due to the nature of study and also these people contributes to the research purpose to a greater extent.

Ethical considerations
In prior to the survey, the personal details of the respondents was gathered. The personal details includes information of residency, full name and description of job and these personal data will not be revealed in order to guarantee the confidentiality to each and every respondent.

Data analysis
The quantitative method 12 is considered as systematic phenomenon for gathering data and executing data in the form of mathematical and statistical methods. This method is utilized to collect data from respondents and describe the results to targeted population. Moreover, the results from quantitative method is sufficient to address the entire targeted population 13 .
With the support of framed questionnaire, the data are collected from the particular sample respondents, and quantitative methodology is utilized for the data analysis. The data is recorded using an Excel sheet to reveal the association among the variables. The software tool SPSS is used for the subsequent estimation stage to analyze the variables entered in Microsoft Excel 14 . The outcomes are estimated using five evaluation approaches. The methods used by the researchers are regression, correlation, and descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, and ANOVA analysis 15 .

Demographic data distribution of participants
The total number of around 120 respondents in Kochi, India are considered as candidates of the study. The demographic details of the respondents are displayed below in form of tables and graphs. Figure 1 Gender of participants Figure 1 illustrates the gender of the respondents involved in the research study. It reveals that 63% of respondents are male whereas 37% are female. The male respondents are significantly higher. Age of the participants

Hypothesis Testing Hypothesis 1 One -way ANOVA test
One way ANOVA is normally utilized when there is an individual independent factor or variable and the main objective is to inspect the difference levels of the factor which have a determinate effect upon the dependent variable 16 .

Independent variable: Attitude and perception of youth people
Dependent variable: Urban local body election The table 1 illustrate the perception of youth people towards the urban local body elections in Kochi. The highest mean value acquired at the "agree" factor followed by "strongly agree". It proves the youth people are much interested in casting their votes in the urban local body elections. Most of the youth people are aware about the significance of the urban local body elections. Therefore, the hypothesis H1, H1: Youth people are aware about the significance of urban local body elections is proved from the above table.
It is contrary to the null hypothesis. Hence, null hypothesis H10 is rejected.  Table 2 illustrates the perception of youth people in electing the young as well as educated leaders in their region. The noteworthy p-value is 0.000 which is less than the control p-value of 0.05. Those kind of people thought that the educated leaders will provide innovative ideas and offer employment opportunities. They will aware of the present condition of youth populace in the society.

Hypothesis 2
The educated leaders will develop the region progressively. Therefore the hypothesis H2, H2: Young and educated representative aids in constructing efficient urban local bodies is proved from the above ANOVA analysis.
It is contrary to the null hypothesis. Hence, null hypothesis H20 is rejected.

Hypothesis 3 Correlation Test
The Pearson Correlation technique is utilized to evaluate the association between two study variables. The value of correlation determine the relation between the variable. If the value of correlation is 1 or -1 then there is relation among the variable 17 .
The above table 3 demonstrates about the correlations of the variables which are proportional to each other. When the correlation coefficient values of the variables are observed to be the same, they are positively correlated. Pearson coefficient of the youth people participation and the barriers such as social, economic condition affects their participation were observed to be 0.747. These variables are directly proportional to each other that is, when one variable rises other variable surges simultaneously. Moreover, the significant value is less than 0.05 which shows that the two considered variables are inter-related with each inferences.
Therefore, the hypothesis H3, H3: Youth populace faces challenges while engaging in the local body election is proved from the above correlation analysis. It is contrary to the null hypothesis. Hence, null hypothesis H30 is rejected from the correlation analysis.

V. DISCUSSION
From the analysis of gathered data from respondents of study using SPSS, the inferences of the study are made. The existing study investigates the decentralised urban governance in the Bhuj city of Kachchh, India. The study concludes the governance should focus on the youth and marginalised society for the development of the region. The present study also acknowledges it since, the logical knowledge, innovation thinking of youth people should be utilised in order to achieve the development of nation. ANOVA analysis proves that educated leaders will aid in constructing the efficient urban local bodies.
In addition to it, analyses the urban governance in the various states of India. The outcome of the analysis reveals the significance of strengthened urban government required for the powerful leadership in the nation. The present study also demonstrate the significance of urban governance and its responsibilities towards the progressive growth of region. Similarly, the existing work evaluated the role of urban green spaces in generating the smartening cities in India. It is implemented with the support of urban governance. Our present study articulates the educated leadership in the urban local bodies will provide novel thoughts in developing the nation.

Limitations
Every study has its own limitation, so does the present study. The major limitation of the research study is that the participants of the research are from Kochi, Kerala, India. Hence, the results might lack in generalizability. However, the implication provided by the research can be useful to enhance the youth populace engagement in the urban local body elections.

VI. CONCLUSION
The youth play a significant role in their own development as well as the communities. Those kind of populace should be aware of their rights and responsibilities. It will enhance the positive civic actions in the society. The voting rights is essenti al part in the democracy. India, a democratic country, every citizen has rights to vote. Hence, every citiz en utilise their rights to elect the appropriate and skilful representative in the elections. Some of the youth people, focus on the activities for progressive of their own life. They wanted to live in the safe society. Parents does not require their children to indulge in the political activities. Very few young people actively participated in the political system but, they also face several challenges such as social and econ omic issues. The urban governance is essential for developing the region as it act as an intermediary among people and government. The elected representative of urban governance should be skilful and knowledgeable to execute the plans and policies for the development of region which in turn progress the nation. The present recommends the youth people to engage in the political system for the development of nation.