What is Universal Adult Franchise?

Let's break down the words:

• Universal: For absolutely everyone, without exception.
• Adult: A citizen who has reached a mature, legal age (in India, 18 years).
• Franchise / Suffrage: The constitutional right to vote in political elections.

Definition: It means that every adult citizen in a country has the right to vote, regardless of their wealth, caste, religion, gender, race, or educational qualification.

Universal Adult Franchise is based directly on the principle of absolute political equality. It guarantees: One Person, One Vote, One Value. This means the vote cast by the poorest, illiterate laborer holds the exact same weight and value as the vote cast by the richest billionaire or the Prime Minister.

Historically, voting was not a universal right.

• Hundreds of years ago in Europe, only rich men who owned land were allowed to vote. Poor people were excluded.
• Later, men could vote, but Women were strictly denied the right to vote. (Women had to fight massive protests, known as the Suffragette Movement, to win this right).
• By adopting Universal Adult Franchise immediately upon independence in 1947, the Indian Constitution boldly declared that no citizen is politically inferior to another.