Methodology

Between January and April 2024, we asked 60 women and queer first-time voters a set of 10 questions. These questions ranged from how they got their news and political information, issues that influenced their voting choices, what they thought were some of the big issues facing the nation, their aspirations from the next government to what they would do if they were made PM for a day.

We spoke to these first-time voters from 42 parliamentary constituencies across 20 states. These were from urban, semi-urban and rural areas–from cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru to remote villages in Bastar, Kalahandi, Anantnag and Vadakara. Most (70%) of them were students and the rest included development practitioners, healthcare workers, retail salespeople, a teacher and a daily wage labourer. More than half (58%) are younger than 22 and most (75%) finished their graduation.

These 60 voices include 43 Hindus, 11 Muslims and 2 Christians. 10 are from Scheduled Castes, 7 from Scheduled Tribes and 3 from Denotified Tribes; 7 Trans and Non Binary people, 3 are persons with disabilities and 2 are residents of backward areas.

These 60 video interviews formed the base for our dataset. After transcribing these interviews, we categorised the responses and assigned keywords to the categories on a spreadsheet- for eg, the 3 issues they cared about. This dataset formed the basis of our analysis.