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The coalition, which includes the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), the Electoral Reform Society, the British Youth Council and the National Union of Students, has written to the leaders of the three main parties calling on them to enfranchise Britain's 1.5 million 16 and 17-year-olds.

The Votes at 16 coalition says if 16 and 17-year-olds are able to leave home, get a full-time job, pay taxes, raise children and join the armed forces they should also be able to vote.

Louise King, policy officer at the CRAE, said: "At 16 and 17, young people's lives are as rich and varied as at any other age.

"They have considerable responsibilities and routinely make complex decisions but adult society does not consider them responsible enough to vote. This is both illogical and unjust."

The campaigners contend that swelling the number of young voters would force politicians to take their views more seriously.

So far only the Liberal Democrats have committed in their manifesto to reducing the voting age to 16. The party's spokesman for young people, Matthew Green, said: "We believe that involving young people earlier in the political process will lead to a lifetime of interest and activism.

"Sixteen is the age when they are given many other responsibilities of citizenship such as beginning full-time work and paying taxes."

Damilola Ajagbonna, 17, of the CRAE, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's the old revolutionaries' cry, 'no taxation without representation'. If we're not allowed to vote to decide who lowers or raises the tax, then why should we be taxed."

Mr Ajagbonna believes that lowering the voting age would also help to prevent the disillusionment with politics that an estimated two-thirds of first-time voters say has put them off voting in the current election.

He said: "To a certain degree that's partly the reason why we want to lower the voting age. Because politics is seen as this obsolete thing over there. It's them and us."

Mr Ajagbonna, who wants to be an MP, rejected claims that young people lacked sufficient knowledge and experience to vote wisely. He said the introduction of compulsory citizenship education into schools had raised the awareness of what it meant to be a good citizen.