From illiterates to Doctorates, all in fray in 2024 Lok Sabha polls

India is heading to become world’s third-largest economy by 2027. Reports indicate that India is poised to surpass Japan and Germany, positioning itself as the world’s third-largest economy by 2027, according to a note published by analysts at the investment banking firm Jefferies earlier this year.

However having the maximum population count country-wise on this planet and no specific criteria pertaining to minimum qualification for contesting its parliamentary elections, in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha polls, a neat 352 candidates were illiterates or just literates in all seven phases while over 1000 were not even matriculates.

Paradoxically, a peon’s post in a government office had a minimum qualification of class 12 or graduation while even a sanitation worker was required to be a matriculate or class 12 pass to apply for the same.

137 illiterate candidates contesting polls

As per reports of ADR and National Election Watch, a shocking 137 candidates in fray in all the seven phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls were illiterates. This means that if they registered a win, they would not be able to even read official documents a Member of Parliament was required to go through and take decisions accordingly or attend to routine work of an MP.

215 just literates in fray

Moreover, 215 candidates are just literates while 382 candidates had studied up till class 5. Further, reports revealed, 654 candidates had studied till class 8 while 1256 were matriculates and 1406 had cleared their senior secondary school examination.

Notably, a maximum of 1617 candidates in fray in all the seven phases were graduates followed by 1074 graduate professionals, 1418 Post Graduates, 247 Phd degree holders while232 were diploma holders.

Phase-wise a maximum 26 illiterates had contested the Lok Sabha polls in phase IV and I while 24 illiterates were in phase VII, 21 in phase V, 19 in Phase III besides 13 in phase VI and 8 in phase II of the ongoing polls.

Says political analyst and senior journalist Brijendra Pratap Singh, ‘Lack of minimum educational qualification for assuming leadership role for this country was a gaping hole in the democratic setup which had affected the quality of leadership a progressing nation required to become world major.”

Lok Sabha poll candidates and their educational qualification