Rajiv Gandhi-era reforms: 18-year voters, C-DOT and education policy

What Happened

During Rajiv Gandhi’s time as prime minister, spanning 1984 to 1989, the government introduced and implemented three significant reforms. First, Parliament passed the Sixty-First Amendment Act in 1988 to lower the minimum voting age from 21 to 18, with the amendment taking effect on March 28, 1989. The change added about 3.57 crore young voters aged 18–21 to the electorate, increasing youth participation in the November 1989 Lok Sabha election. Second, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) was established on August 25, 1984, as an autonomous telecommunications research body with an initial budget of ₹36 crore and a plan to develop digital electronic switching systems within 36 months. A field deployment at Kittur in Karnataka on July 22, 1986, tested a 128-line Rural Automatic Exchange (RAX) designed to operate under challenging conditions; the Kittur exchange could serve 80 subscribers. By March 1993, more than 10,000 RAX units had been produced, according to data from the Department of Telecommunications, and the initiative coincided with reported local gains in banking deposits and business income after new connectivity. Third, the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, was introduced to address elementary education, adult literacy, teacher education, school infrastructure, vocational education, and access for disadvantaged groups. It included the Operation Blackboard program to provide minimum facilities to primary schools, emphasized surveys to identify deficiencies, and outlined phased implementation starting in 1986–87. The policy advocated universal elementary education and retention of children up to 14 years old to curb dropout rates. In 1988, the National Literacy Mission was launched to promote functional literacy among adults aged 15–35, with reported progress in establishing adult literacy as a central element of education reform.

These measures were highlighted as key shifts during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, framed in the context of an infrastructure base that included limited telecommunications access and rising educational disparities.