Decentralization Community

Solution
Exchange
Community

for

the

Decentralization

Consolidated Reply
Query: Strategies for Systematic Voters Education
Electoral Participation (SVEEP). Advice, Example.

and

Compiled by Naveen Das, Resource Person, Decentralization Community

Issue Date: 12 June 2015

From: Padma Angmo, Deputy Secretary, Election Commission of India

and Sumeeta Banerji, United Nations Development Programme, New
Delhi
Closing date: 5 June 2015
The Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign by the Election
Commission of India (ECI) was launched in 2009 with the objective of enhancing Electoral
Participation in the country and building a culture of participative democracy.
In addition to women, youth and urban electors, certain groups like Transgenders, sex workers,
labourers, migrant groups, tribal communities, people in extremism affected and far-flung areas,
persons with disabilities, senior citizens and homeless persons form a part of the target group of
the voters education and participation programme for active participation in the electoral
process. ECI identifies such communities and adopts specific measures to reach out to them. See
the full report on SVEEP India National Document (2009-14) here.
SVEEP campaign played a key role in ensuring for the first time a record voter turnout of 66.4
percent in Indias historic 2014 general elections. The women voters outnumbered men in many
states, reducing the gender gap to 1.55 % as against more than 4 % in 2009. In 16 States/Union
Territories, women voter turnout was higher than men and women voters surpassed men for the
first time ever in nine States/Union Territories.
For this, a number of strategies, approaches and activities were adopted to maximise voter
participation through continuous research, national policy framework, state plans, district plans
and a whole range of communication and awareness strategies including Information , Motivation
and Facilitation.

However, in spite of the above efforts by the Election Commission, nearly 275 million registered
voters (33.6 percent) did not participate in voting in the 2014 general election. The Election
Commission is presently attempting to identify gaps and improve voter participation by holding
discussions with civil society organizations (CSOs) and various target groups including youth,
women, people with disability and marginalized communities.
Besides targeting the general voters, specific focus in this phase is on Voters from the Armed Service (defence and paramilitary personnel who use postal ballot to vote), overseas (NRI)
voters, Differently Abled, migrant labourers/professionals, marginalized communities, rural
populace including gender gap, urban apathy and youth disconnect.
In order to further strengthen its voter education and electoral participation strategy, The
Election Commission of India seeks inputs from members on the following:

What are the groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted?

What are the strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new strategies
to reach out to the groups that have been left out to enhance enrolment and
participation in elections?

In what ways, can the Election Commission reach out to relevant CSOs , opinion leaders,
educational institutions, youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal
groups to strengthen voter awareness and participation?

What are the effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of
community mobilization that can be adopted by Election Commission?

The inputs from members will help the Election Commission of India in framing its voter
education and electoral participation strategy to reach out to different target groups.
Members inputs will be duly acknowledged

Responses were received, with thanks, from

1. Bibhu Prasad Mohanty, Independent Development Consultant, Coach and
Trainer, CSR, Food & Livelihood Security, Gender Equity, Bhubaneshwar,
Odisha
2. Alieu Momarr Njai, Independent Electoral Commissioner, The Gambia, Africa
3. Srijan Prabhakar, Media Support Executive, ECI, New Delhi
4. Binoy Acharya, UNNATI, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
5. Sunita Menon, Breakthrough, New Delhi
6. Dhirendra Krishna, IA and AS (Retired), New Delhi
7. Nishant Saxena, Technical Expert, Chief Electoral Office, Lucknow, Uttar
Pradesh
8. Aleida Ferreyra, Electoral Policy Specialist, Bureau for Policy and Programme
Support (BPPS), United Nations Development Programme, New York
9. Subhash Mendhapurkar, SUTRA, Solan, Himachal Pradesh
10. Bhim Raskar, Resource and Support Centre for Development (RSCD),
Belarpur, Navi Mumbai (Response-1) (Response-2)
11. Raghavendra. V, Joint CEO , Karnataka
12. Hitesh Khanna, Abinash Chaudhary and Suraj Kumar, Neeti Foundation, New
Delhi

13. Kavindra Kulkarni, Prime Minister Rural Development Fellow, Sonebhadra UP

and Sonitpur Assam
14. Gopalakrishnan Devanathan (Kris Dev), Change Agent for True Democracy,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
15. Kamal Kumar Kar, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
16. K. S. Mohannarayana, Department of Political Science and Humanities, SDM
Autonomous College, Ujire, District Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka
17. Indrani Malkani, V Citizens Action Network (VCAN), Malabar Hill , Mumbai
18. Prof. S Narayan, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi
19. Neeta Dubey, Stare Advisor, Skill Development and Capacity Development,
Office of the Chief Minister, Rajasthan
20. Manoj Rai, PRIA, New Delhi
21. K R Prasad, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Bengaluru,
Karnataka
22. Sanjeev Sharma, Chief Electoral Office, Jharkhand
23. MD. Noor Alam, Multiple Action Research Group (MARG), New Delhi
24. Ranjan Mohanty, People Culture Trust (PECUC) and Odisha Election Watch,
Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
25. Siddhartha Kumar, Ottawa, Canada
26. Swapan K Biswas, PG Dept. of Pol/Science, J N Govt. College , Port Blair,
Andaman
27. Ravindranathan M.K., Kerala
28. N. Ramakrishnan, Ideosync Media Combine, Faridabad, Haryana
29. Saket Ambarkhane, United Nations Volunteer (UNV) , New Delhi
30. Suresh Goduka, Chief Electoral Office, Assam
31. Aparna Lall, Association for Democratic Reforms, New Delhi
32. Aafreen Siddiqui, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra
33. Lissa Chazot, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
34. Avdhash Kaushal, Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), Dehradun,
Uttarakhand
35. Suvarna Raj, Social Worker, New Delhi
36. Abraham Karammel, Retired NRI, Kerala
37. Bimla Chandrasekar, EKTA, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
38. Satendra Jain, Lok Nahrik Kalyan Samiti, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh
* Offline contributions

Further contributions are welcome!

Summary of Responses
Comparative Experiences
Related Resources
Responses in Full
Summary of Responses
Decentralization Community Members congratulated the Election Commission of India (ECI) for
successfully holding elections after elections and ensuring higher and higher voter turnout.
Members also commended ECI for making arrangements to reach out to the voters in far flung

areas including those in high altitude and snow clad mountainous regions in the North, scattered
tiny islands in South, thick forests in East and vast tracks of marshy and desert lands in West
despite formidable challenges to election managers in the country.
Discussants found that a dedicated holistic strategy of ECI under Systematic Voter Education and
Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign has indeed helped the nation register its all-time highest
voters' turnout of 66.4% in the last General Elections 2014. In an effort to reach higher on the
turnout peak and healthier electoral rolls, the Commission's effort to invite inputs/suggestions
from all the sections of the society for devising strategies for SVEEP III was welcomed. The
Community Members have responded enthusiastically to the four questions posted by ECI on
identifying the groups and the strategies to reach out to them.
Members felt that despite the best efforts of ECI, still there are groups that have been left out in
the electoral process on account of lack of awareness, inaccessibility and urban apathy. The
result of the last General election has shown that roughly 30% population that is elite has not
bothered to vote even after appeals by celebrity icons like Amir Khan. Thus, efforts should be
made to target the voters including this section of the society as well. The broad category of
people who do not vote are:

Those who dont know if they should vote;

Those who know but dont want to vote;
Those who know and want to vote but cant vote due to some problems.

Members identified the following groups that may have been left out in the voting process and
need to be targeted:

Marginalized groups such as: Persons with disability (PWD), Transgender, Devdasis and
Commercial Sex Workers;
Religious minorities such as Muslims, Dalits and Tribals;
Young eligible voters and older people/senior citizen;
Domestic workers, daily wage earners, migrant workers and bonded labourers;
Nomadic and semi-nomadic groups such as Van Gujjars and Maldharis;
Non Resident Indians;
Other disadvantaged communities living in remote and inaccessible areas.

The strategies suggested by the discussants to reach out to the above focus groups and also to
the groups that have been left out to enhance enrolment and participation in elections are as
follows:

Get responsible opinion leaders and celebrities from across industries to endorse the
election process;
Tie up with trade unions, RWAs and market associations to promote voting;
Link awareness campaigns with access to government schemes;
Use electronic and print media line TV, Radio, newspapers, bill boards etc;
Awareness through traditional media such as street theatres, nukkad natak, folk media,
puppet shows, magic shows and local festivals and melas;
Involvement of students and volunteers such as the Bharat Nirman Volunteers under the
Diksha programme of the Ministry of Rural Development;
Campaign involving Civil Society Organisations, Community Based Organizations, Women
Self-help-groups, Youth Clubs, NSS, NCC, NYK;
Awareness generation through special gram sabhas, mahila sabhas and ward and palli
sabhas.
Special drives during national and local festivals like Holi and others;

Organizing voter enrolment camps in areas mostly inhabited by migrant workers, daily
wage labourers, transgender/eunuch/sex workers;
Sending SMSs encouraging voters to participate in voting providing details of their polling
station including information on the facilities available at polling station for elderly and
disabled voters along with GPS location of the polling stations;
Promote postal voting or online voting, if possible with stringent controls for people
working in emergency services and NRI;
Online mobilization through social media such as Twitter, Face book;
Use of blogs/ news digest for young people through Buzz Feed, Upworth; RSS feed and
Scoopwoop;

Members felt that to generate mass awareness and mobilize people to register and vote, it is
extremely important to reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational institutions,
youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups to strengthen voter
awareness and participation. Some of the ways in which it can be done is as follows:

Conduct regular consultative meetings with stakeholders including CSOs, educational

institutions, and think tanks;
Develop data bank of CSOs at district level and collaborate with them in targeting
pockets that are marginalized, vulnerable and were left out;
Collaborate with educational institutions to encourage students to take up Election
Related Projects as part of their curriculum;
Appoint Campus Ambassadors in colleges and Universities and involve them in
promotional activities on a regular basis;
Give an open call and invite organizations/ institutions/ groups/ opinion leaders to join for
specific tasks for targeted interventions;
Use of national, regional and local icons in promotional activities on election;
Provide special funds to NGOs, CSOs and educational institutions for electoral awareness
and make their participation compulsory.

Discussants identified the following effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures
of community mobilization that can be adopted by Election Commission to enhance the electoral
participation:

Adopt and scale up practices like Meet Your Candidates giving the voters opportunity
to meet their Candidates face to face to vent their thoughts and ideas;
Organise special Gram sabhas / Palli Sabhas in rural areas and ward level meetings in
urban areas involving all voters of the concern area and discuss the importance of voting
and motivating them for hundred percent enrolments and voting;
Conduct 360 degree campaign for electoral mobilization of mass media and mid media
on the ground;
Involve political parties in the process by sharing the draft enrolment roll with them and
encouraging them to share any gaps they come across;
Opening Voter Facilitation Centres at all the prominent public places like Hospitals,
Bus stands, Railway stations, Banks, Cinema Halls, Malls, Airport, Places of Worship etc;
Circulate information handouts to families through school children;
Use village level local festivals, ceremonies, marriages, fairs and weekly market for
effective campaigns.

Members were of the opinion that despite serious efforts of the ECI to enhance the voter
enrolment and increase the turnouts in election by bringing the left outs and non-voters to enroll
and vote, the result did not commensurate with the efforts because of the following reasons:

Rampant use of money in a recent roundtable discussion on Reforms for Economy in

Elections and Electoral Processes, a panel member recounted a case where he saw
nearly 500 people sitting near a polling booth but not voting because they had been
paid to not vote;
Updated and correct electoral roll. Often on the date of the polling, people complain
about their names not in the voter list, which is known only after going to the polling
booths;
In many of the remote areas, people still do not have voter IDs cards;
Most polling booths are disable unfriendly. There is lack of remaps, toilets, wheel chairs
for people with disabilities. The polling staff are not sensitive towards differently abled;
Lack of dedicated staff to continuously work on Electoral processes throughout the year.
This is due to staff being sourced from various Government departments during the
revisions, which lack familiarity with the procedures and are therefore inefficient in
carrying out the work related to Electoral Processes;
Starting point of errors is the manual submission of Forms (6, 7, and 8). The electors
submit data in a hand-filled Form, which is later typed in by an operator with high
possibility of errors. And to correct the errors, another Form is submitted later (again
hand-filled) and, because of the continued casual approach, errors continue occurring;
The polling booths are not homogeneously spread and at places they are far away from
community agglomerations;
Due to security reasons, voting is allowed between 7am to 4 pm in places affected by
Naxal activities;
During hot summer and cold winter less number of voters come out to vote due to
adverse climatic conditions;
Urban apathy and indifference of Citizens towards the Electoral Processes, resulting in
low voter turnout;
Lack of proper and simplified dissemination of information regarding Electoral processes
prior to Election and on Election Day to the public.

Some recommendations suggested by the discussants to improve the Systematic Voters

Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme are as follows:

The pre-poll IEC campaign can be better designed with clear message of what to do to
ensure that the name of the voter is entered in the voter list and avoid any surprise on
arrival at the booth;
Constituency wise background information on the candidates may be published in local
newspapers and hand bills are printed and circulated. This is the best form to know the
background of the candidates;
Migrant workers may be allowed to vote through postal ballot like the Arms Forces;
List of those who did not vote should be published;
Voting through biometric smart card should be introduced to prevent corruption and
bribing;
Citizens to have multiple options to get registered in voters list. Local centres such as
anganwadi, citizen service centre, local schools, registered self-help groups, clubs etc.
could act as preliminary registration centres. These centres may supply data to their
respective Panchayats and Municipalities for compilation and corrections at the levels of
Panchayats/Municipalities;
Panchayats and Municipalities must be made responsible for ensuring enrolment of all
voters from their jurisdictions;
Incentives for Campus Ambassadors delivering good results should be recognized and
incentivized;

Internet voting to be introduced with necessary security measures;

National Voters Day should be compulsorily celebrated in schools by first explaining the
Pledge and later taking the Pledge;
Campus registration of young voters at the time of admission should be made
mandatory;
Use Social Media to create awareness about the electoral rights and duties of citizens;
Posters with information in braille for the visually impaired and blind community to be
brought out;
Create a live chat option on the official website to help address doubts of people logged
on to the official website;
Booth level officers to be sensitized to deal with people with disabilities.
The helpline number 1950 has to be closely monitored as the number is either mostly out
of order or there is no response at all on this number. It becomes active during election
period and for rest of the time it is mostly defunct or inoperative. This can be put to use
in many meaningful ways.

Discussants felt that the canvas is very large for further widening democracy by bringing ever
larger number of people into the voting booths. One way of making a start is to build coalitions
of NGOs and think-tanks that work with both electoral authorities, who conduct elections and
parties/ candidates, who contest elections. Clearly, the ECI in its efforts to increase voter turnout
cannot involve directly with political parties as it has to be completely impartial. However, it can
engage in a non-partisan manner through public dialogues and campaigns. Moreover, civil society
organizations and think-tanks can take up research and evidence-based advocacy with campaign
managers of parties and candidates across the board. Once parties and candidates have data on
hitherto un-mobilized voters, the efforts to mobilize these groups including addressing their
concerns and removal of any constraints in the way of their voting would receive an additional
fillip.
A multi-pronged strategy must be adopted with efforts to achieve results even better than SVEEP
I and SVEEP II. Now, that the District Election machinery has ensured the quantitative output of
SVEEP and NERPAP activities by updating statistical information on the Commission's Dashboard
for DEOs/EROs, it's time to focus more on the qualitative output of the Commission's efforts to
purify the rolls, increase voters' turnout and ensure ethical voting in the upcoming elections in
India.

Comparative Experiences
Aleida Ferreyra, Electoral Policy Specialist, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support
(BPPS), United Nations Development Programme, New York
Indonesia
The assessment of an old electoral project in Indonesia found that most people get information
through TV. The electoral project partner with support from famous local actors and TV stations
developed soap opera type of voter education TV spots. They became very popular and were
found to be effective in carrying the message around. The success of this was reflected in the
voter turnout in subsequent elections.
Tunisia
To enhance the voter participation and awareness, the electoral project launched some
democracy games for youth. The winners got a sponsored trip to New York to see the UN and

meet the Secretary General. This generated lot of interest among the youths to participate in
electoral processes. Some songs and videos were also produced in support from artists and radio
stations to focus on the youths and general people to participate in the elections.
Bhutan and Nepal
To target the youths and enhance their participation in the elections the UNDP electoral project
used theatre as a medium to disseminate the messages and information on election process, its
importance and their active involvement. The theatre was performed by actors in local languages
in open spaces and in plazas. There was a good response of this among the youths and this
intervention was able to increase the youth voting in the elections.
From Abraham Karammel, Independent Consultant, Kerala
Brazil
Participatory Budgeting (PB)
Porto Alegra in Brazil was declared bankrupt in 1988. At that point of time 96% of its revenue
was going for salaries and routine expenses. To solve this crisis the city started Participatory
Budgeting (PB) in 1989. The PB has evolved into worlds most efficient and systematic socioeconomic development process now famous as Porto-Alegre Innovation. Because of its merits,
PB is adapted in about 300 local governments in Brazil and in around 40 countries including
Argentina, Chile, China, Canada, England, France, Itlay, Germany, Mexico, Paragauy, Spain and
USA. The PB process is suitable from villages/ towns/ cities of developing as well as developed
countries.
From K. S. Mohannarayana, Department of Political Science and Humanities, SDM
Autonomous College, Ujire, District Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka
Karnataka, India
It was found that the eligible voters were not aware about their voting rights in Gram Panchayats
and villages of Belthangady Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka State. SDM
Autonomous College, Ujire, decided to take up the task of awareness generation among the mass
and increasing the voting percentage. For this, support from students of the college was taken.
Students in small groups visited the houses of the villagers with pamphlets and placards in their
hands and explained the importance of voting and requested them to vote compulsorily. A large
number of eligible voters registered themselves and came out to vote.
From MD. Noor Alam, Multiple Action Research Group (MARG), New Delhi
New Delhi, India
Sawda Ghevra is a slum resettlement colony in Mundka Vidhan Sabha of Delhi. The amenities
related to basic services were extremely poor here. Community men and women joined together
to demand their right for the basics services during the electioneering and they decided to utilize
their vote to get better civic amenities and commitment for water-pipeline. The slum colony of
more 16,000 voters become instrumental in drastically improving the conditions of slumps by
using their electoral rights and deciding the fate of Municipal Corporators or MLA candidate.
Women of the community has successfully used vote to highlight the water issue of their locality.
They have got first Water ATM machine in Delhi. They are now getting water from Delhi Jal
Boards through GPS controlled water tankers and now the water-pipeline installation is in
process.

Swapan K Biswas, PG Department of Political Science, J N Govt. College , Port Blair,

Andaman
Andaman and Nicobar islands, India
Local administration gave the responsibility of enrolling all the first year students who have not
yet enrolled in the voter list to the college. The faculties prepared Nukar Natak by involving
students and staging it at college campus and various other public places to educate the general
public and students. There was a good response from youths towards this and the voter turnout
increased. The Car Nicobar and Nancowry Tahsil recorded 82.65 percent and 79.50 percent
polling in 2014 Lok Sabha elections respectively.

Related Resources
Recommended Documentation
From Alieda Ferreyra, Electoral Policy Specialist, UNDP New York
Practical Guidance Note on Civic Education, UNDP
Available at: http://solutionexchange-un.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Civic_Education_UNDP_NY.pdf

Note focuses on Civic Education as learning for effective participation in democratic and
development processes at both local and national levels. It focuses on the practicalities
of Civic Education programming and building progressive partnerships.

Enhancing Youth Political Participation throughout the Electoral Cycle

A Guide book
Available
at
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democraticgovernance/electoral_systemsandprocesses/enhancing-youth-political-participation-throughoutthe-electoral.html

The Guide identifies key entry points for the inclusion of young people in political and
electoral processes and compiles good practices for political empowerment of youths
around the globe, focusing on innovative instruments.

From Subhash Mendhapurkar, Founder Member, SUTRA

Indian Muslim Women, Politics of Muslim Personal Law and Struggle for Life with
Dignity and Justice
A study by Razia Patel
Available at: http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Indian_Muslim_women_by_Razia_Patel.pdf

The article discusses the politics around the Muslim Personal Law in India and explores
what needs to be the real agenda for social scientists and activists.

From Bhim Raskar, Resource and Support Centre for Development (RSCD), Belarpur,
Navi Mumbai
Set of strategies Towards Fair Election and Governance
Available at: http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Towards_fair_Election_and_Governance.pdf

The documents is a set of tried and tested strategies that were adopted for promoting
free and fair elections in Maharashtra 2014 general elections.

From Abraham Karammel, Independent Consultant, Kerala

Participatory Budgeting
Power point presentation; Porto Alegre Innovation
Available at: http://solutionexchange-un.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/2-SuperDevelopModels-2014Jun.pps

The presentation shares details of successful peoples participation process called

Participatory Budgeting (PB) adopted in Porte Alegre in 1989. It evolved into worlds
most efficient and systematic socio-economic development process, now famous as
Porto Alegre Innovation.

From Aafreen Siddiqui, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra

Report of impact assessment for events conducted by We Empower under the
campaign Mera Vote Mera Haq (2013 14)
Available at: http://solutionexchange-un.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Annex_5Report_of_Impact_assessment_for_Event-for_EC.pdf

The report study the impact of the campaign for generating youth awareness about
democracy, involving youth in Indian Democratic process and increasing their
participation by voter registration.

From Lissa Chazot, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Strategies for Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) by the
founders, teachers and students of Mahatma Gandhi International School,
Ahmedabad (Report and Presentation)
Report is available at: http://solutionexchange-un.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Strategies_for_ECI_query.pdf
Presentation is available at : http://solutionexchange-un.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/PPT_for_ECI.pdf

These are strategies to inculcate values of democracy and electoral practices in

educational institutions at pan-India level and promote electoral awareness and
participation among the Youth and Urban Electors.

From Satendra Jain, Lok Nahrik Kalyan Samiti, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh
Solutions to the identified problems and issues related to improving the Election
Management
Document: A report in Hindi
Available
at:
http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Response_Lok_Nagrik_Kalyan_Samiti_Firozabad.pdf

These are solutions to the problems and issues identified during voters outreach
programme by the agency during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Recommended Organizations
From Sunita Menon
Breakthrough TV
E-1 A Kailash Colony First Floor New Delhi 110048, India Tel: 91-11-41666101 Fax: 91-1141666107. Email: contact@breakthrough.tv Website: http://in.breakthrough.tv/

Breakthrough is a global human rights organization working to make violence and

discrimination against women and girls unacceptable.

From Subhash Mendhapurkar

NIRMAN SOCIETY, 484, Millennium Apartment, C- Block, Sector-18, Rohini, Delhi-110085
Phone: 011- 27872342; Website: http://www.nirmana.org/index.php

It works with migrant workers from Jharkhand and construction workers in Delhi. It
provides logistic support to the National Campaign Committee Construction Labour

(NCC-CL) which has been campaigning for a comprehensive Central Legislation since
1985 to provide social security and labour welfare to construction workers.
SANGRAM, Aarohan, Ghanshyamnagar, Madhav Nagar Road, Sangli 416 416, Maharashtra
(INDIA) Phone No 0233-2312191, Email: info@sangram.org Website: http://www.sangram.org/

It is a voluntary organization that works at the grass root level with a lot of activists,
volunteers and paid workers. It is slowly gaining importance as a practical training
ground for other NGOs and GOs interested in working on HIV/AIDS in a rural context.

From : Indrani Malkani

TogetherVCAN, 42 A, Acropolis, 28 A, Little Gibbs Road, Malabar Hill, Mumbai 400006. Phone
+91 22 2364 0113 Website: http://www.togethervcan.in/

V Citizens Action Network (VCAN) is a not for profit organization that undertakes several
initiatives that educate citizens in order to increase their participation in governance and
policy making.

From : Manoj Rai

Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), BB-5, 1st Floor, Greater Kailash Enclave - II, New
Delhi - 110048, Tel: +91-11-29226632, 29228127, Fax : +91-11-41435535,
E-mail:
info@vaniindia.org Website: www.vaniindia.org

VANI was formed in the year 1988 with an objective to promote volunteerism and
voluntary sector in India. Since then, it is using advocacy as its principle instrument to
catalyze this change.

From N. Ramakrishnan
Ideosync Media Combine, 177, Ashoka Enclave-III, Sector-35, Faridabad, Haryana 121 003,
Tele phone: 0129-4064883, 4065883, 6510156, Fax: 0129-4131883
Email: info@ideosyncmedia.org Web site : www.ideosyncmedia.org

It is communication for social change organization working across India, South Asia and
South East Asia to develop strategic communication plans for development initiatives;
conduct communication related research for formative and impact studies, emphasizing
participatory and ethnographic research processes; development communication and
media tools.

The UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF),1-United Nations Plaza, Room DC1-1300, New York, NY
10017, USA, Tel: +1 212 963 3399, Fax: +1 212 963 1486,Email: democracyfund@un.org Web
site: http://www.un.org/democracyfund/

UNDEF was established by the UN Secretary-General in 2005 as a United Nations General

Trust Fund to support democratization efforts around the world. UNDEF supports
projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage
the participation of all groups in democratic processes.

From Aafreen Siddiqui

Indian Medical Association (IMA) I.M.A. House, Indraprastha Marg, New Delhi-110 002,
Phone: 011-23370009. Email: hsgima@gmail.com, hsg@ima-india.org Website: http://www.imaindia.org/ima/

Indian Medical Association is the only representative voluntary organization of Doctors of

Modern Scientific System of Medicine, which looks after the interest of doctors as well as
the well-being of the community at large.

Indian Association of Physiotherapists (IAP) 39 DC slice 2 scheme number-78, Vijaynagar

Indore 452010 (MP) India. Email:enquires.iap@gmail.com Website: www.physiotherapyindia.org/

Indian Association Physiotherapist is a registered body in India, with over 30,000

physiotherapists as member of this body.

We Empower (Sashaktikaran) www.meravote-merahaq.com

It is an Association of People and a group of spirited citizens engaging in active

dissemination of Voter Registration process along with motivating first time voters to
participate in elections as voters.

From Resource Person

Assam Mahila Samata Society (AMSS), Dr. R. P. Road, Dispur, Lastgate, Guwahati-6, Phone:
+91-361-2231879, Email: assammahila@yahoo.com, Website: www.assammahilasamakhya.org

AMSS has been implementing programmes to encourage, assist and promote collective
reflection, decision making and group action by women as a means to their
empowerment and for equal participation in the process of learning for social change.

North East Network (NEN) J.N. Borooah Lane, Jorpukhuri Guwahati 781001, Assam, India
Phone: 91- 361- 2603833, Email: assamnen@yahoo.co.uk and nen@northeastnetwork.org

NEN is a womens organization established in 1995 during the mobilization process for
the Beijing Conference. The organization has been raising womens rights issues,
particularly within the developmental and political context of the North East region of
India.

Praxis - Institute for Participatory Practices (Patna Office) 1st Floor , Maa Sharde Complex,
East Boring Canal Road, Patna- 800001, Phone / Fax + 91-612 2521983, Email :
info@praxisindia.org, www.praxisindia.org

The organization is committed to mainstreaming the voices of the poor and marginalized
sections of the society in the process of development. This stems from the belief that for
development to be sustainable, the process must be truly participative.

All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), 2253-E, Shadi Khampur, New Rajit
Nagar, New Delhi -110008, Phone: +91 11 25700476 , 25709565, Fax: +91 11 25700476, Email:
aidwacec@gmail.com, Web site:http://www.aidwaonline.org

AIDWA is an independent women's organization committed to achieving democracy,

equality and women's emancipation. AIDWA members are from all strata in society,
regardless of class, caste and community.

PRADAN, E-1/A, Kailash Colony, Ground Floor and Basement, Kailash Colony, New Delhi - 110
048, Phone: 4040 7700, 2924 8826 to 2924 8832, Email: headoffice@pradan.net Web site:
http://www.pradan.net/

PRADAN seeks to enable poor rural families to live a life of dignity. It works in the area of
SHGs, forest-based livelihoods, natural resource management, livestock development and
microfinance promotion.

Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 42, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New
Delhi 110062, Phone:+91-011-29960931/32/33
Fax: +91-11-29955183; Email: alip@pria.org and info@pria.org Website: www.pria.org

PRIA is an international center for learning and promotion of participation and democratic
governance. Its work is focused on capacity building, knowledge building, participatory
research, citizen-centric development, and policy advocacy.

The Hunger Project, Shaheed Bhavan, 18/1 Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, Qutab Inst. Area, New Delhi
110067 Phone: +91 11 4168-8847-50 Fax: +91 11 41688851-52, website: http://thpindia.org/

The Hunger Project works on mobilizing people for self-reliant action, empowering
women as key change agents and engaging with local government.

Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, C-1/E, 2nd Floor, Green Park Extension, New Delhi-110016, Phone:
+91-11-46082371-74,
Fax:
+91-11-46082372,Email:
info@wadanotodo.net
Website:
www.wadanatodo.net

It is a national campaign to hold the government accountable to its promise to end

Poverty, Social Exclusion and Discrimination. It emerged from the consensus among
human rights activists and social action groups who were part of the World Social Forum
2004 in Mumbai.

UNNATI, G-1, 200 Azad Society, Ahmedabad 380 015, Gujarat (India), Phone: +91-7926746145, 26733296, Fax : +91-79-26743752, Email : psu_unnati@unnati.org Website:
http://www.unnati.org

It aims to promote social inclusion and democratic governance so that the vulnerable
sections of society are empowered to effectively and decisively participate in mainstream
development and decision making processes.

Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan, 70-B, Bankers Colony, Jubilee Ground Area, Bhuj Mundra Road,
Phone: +91-2832225772/73, Email: kmvsbhuj@gmail.com website: www.kutchabhiyan.org

It is a collective of Kachchh based development organizations with a strong local

presence. It encourages self-help development, especially with marginalized sections,
integrates traditional wisdom with new technologies and innovates and balances issues
of human rights.

Self Employed Women's Association, SEWA Reception Centre, Opp. Victoria Garden, Bhadra,
Ahmedabad - 380 001. India, Phone : 91-79-25506444 / 25506477 / 25506441, Fax : 91 - 79 25506446, Email: mail@sewa.org Website www.sewa.org

It is a trade union organization working of poor, self-employed women workers. The

organization support women who earn a living through their own labour or small
businesses.

SUTRA, P.O. Jagjit Nagar Via: Jubbar District Solan, Himachal Pradesh, Phone: +91 1792
283725; 1792 283772, Fax: +91 1792 283734, E-mail: sutrahp@gmail.com Website:
http://www.sutra.org.in/

SUTRA works on issues related to Gender Equity. It believes that all the democratic
institutions shall fulfill their constitutional obligations towards citizens only when people
are collectively empowered.

SAMARTHAN, 36, Green Avenue, Chuna Bhatti, Kolar Road Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
Tel: +91-755-2467625, Fax: +91-755-2468663, Email: info@samarthan.org website:
www.samarthan.org

Samarthan works in the area of good governance for sustained and equitable
development and effective participation by all stakeholders, especially the marginalized,
socially excluded and disadvantaged groups.

Mahila Rajsatta Andolan, RH-4, C-4, Lane No. 8, Sector-9, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai-400
614, Phone: +91-22-27577587, Fax: +91-22-27574110, Email: mahila_rajsatta@yahoo.com and
rscd.1994@gmail.com Web site : http://www.mahilarajindia.org

MRA works with elected women representatives and network of NGOs in Maharashtra.
MRA started the campaign with - 'Our Vote, Our Governance'- a Campaign to empower
women in decision making process and electoral participation.
Impulse
NGO,
Ranees
Abode,
Near
Horse
Shoe
Building,
Lower Lachumiere, Shillong 793001, Phone: 0364 -2500587/ 2503140 Fax: 0364 2229939
Email: ingon@rediffmail.com Website: http://www.impulseasia.org

Impulse works toward ensuring equal human rights for all, particularly women and
children. Its mission is to support those in need of care and protection and to create
networks with the community, NGOs/CBOs and government bodies.

Centre for Youth and Social Development, E-1, Institutional Area, Gangadhar Meher Marg
Bhubaneswar- 7510013, Phone: 0674- 2300983 / 2301725, Fax: 0674-2301226,
Email : chairman@cysd.org Website : www.cysd.org

CYSD is working to improve the quality of lives of tribal, rural and urban poor in
Odisha. The center primarily focuses on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,
ensuring social inclusion and justice, good governance and citizens right.

Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti, 46, Chitracoot Colony, Makarwali Road, Vaishali Nagar, Ajmer,
Rajasthan 305001, Phone: +91-145-264 0275, Email: mahila.janadhikar@gmail.com Website:
http://www.mjas.in/

MJAS aims at providing relief to women in difficult situations through organizing womens
groups at the village and at the locality. The organization envisages imparting training
and information to women to build their capacities.

Women in Development, Almighty Royal -G3, 29/1B &29/1C, South Mada Street,Koyambedu,
Chennai-600107. Phone: +91-44-24799855, Email: iwidndia@gmail.com
Website :
http://www.iwidindia.org/

It is an initiative of a group of women activists across India. It focuses on empowerment

of marginalized women both within NGOs and in the context of larger society.

EKTA Resource Centre for Women, Bethel Nagar, Bible Bhavan Street, Bypass Road,
Ponmeni, Madurai 625 016, Phone : 0452 2381309, Fax : 0452 2382454,
email
:
mdu_ekta@rediffmail.com
and
ektanambikkai@gmail.com
Website
:
http://www.ektamadurai.org/

EKTA promotes issue-based campaigns to end violence against women, facilitates

networks for experiential sharing and collective action. It advocates and lobbies for
gender sensitive policy changes and address gender based violence.

Sahbhagi Shikshan Kendra (SSK), Sahbhagi Road, Chhatha Meel, Sitapur Road, Lucknow 227 208 Uttar Pradesh, Phone: (0522) 6980124, E-mail: info@sabhagi.org Website :
www.sahbhagi.org

SSK strive for building and strengthening capacities of CSOs through people centric
approach placing people at the center of all developmental initiatives. SSK works with
grassroots organizations that strive for social change.

Shramik Bharti, 392, Vikas Nagar, Lakhanpur, Kanpur U.P. Phone: +91-512-2581091, 2580823
Fax: +91-522-2584074, E-mail: Info@Shramikbharti.org.in and shramikbhartikanpur@gmail.com
website :http://www.shramikbharti.org.in/

Shramik Bharti is Kanpur based not for profit organization. Its activities are primarily
aimed at eradicating poverty with particular emphasis on empowering women.

Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), 68/1, RLEK Building, Suryalok Colony ,
Rajpur, Road, Dehradun 24800, Uttarakhand, Phone: +91-135-2746071; 2745339, Fax: +91135-2746881, Email: rlek.org@gmail.com Website: http://www.rlek.org/

RLEK works in the area of human rights and environmental protection. It has played a
major role in pushing for sustainable development at the national and international level.

Election Watch for Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Bihar, T95A, C.L. House, 1st Floor, Gulmohar Commerical Complex, Gautam Nagar, Near Green Park
Metro Station (Gautam Nagar exit) New Delhi-110049

Its goal is to improve governance and strengthen democracy by working in the area of
Electoral and Political Reforms.

Volunteer for Better India -Mumbai, 705, D-Definity, Jayprakash road, Goregaon (east)
Mumbai- 400063 Phone- 022- 40043705, Email: mumbai.vbi@gmail.com

Volunteer for a Better India is a movement to bring together citizens of Mumbai,

irrespective of culture, religion, ethnicity, caste, organization or spiritual affiliation, to
service the city.

Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad, Mahatma Gandhi International

School, Sheth Motilal Hirabhai Bhavan, Mithakali, Sheth, Motilal Hirabhai Bhavan, Mithakali,
Ahmedabad, 380006, Gujarat, India, Phone: +91 79 2646 3888 Email: info@mgis.in

MGIS is a democratic educational institution where students practice self-governance by

making their own rules and following them. The school seeks to promote inter-cultural
understanding and mutual respect by encouraging all forms of diversity within and
without the classroom.

Lets Vote, Email: coreteam@letsvote.in

Lets Vote promotes societal development and positive nation building through
sensitizing professionals to cast their vote.

Vivekananda Institute for Leadership Development (V-LEAD), Mysore, CA-2, KIADB

Industrial Housing Area, Hebbal, Ring Road, Mysore 570016, Ph. 9686666313, Fax: 08212415412, Email: info@vild.edu.in Website: www.vild.edu.in

Its mission is to develop human and social capital for nation building by constantly
enhancing the potential of individuals and institutions for the development sector.

Log Nagrik Kalyan Samiti, 190/28, Om Nagar, Sheetal Khan Road, Firozabad - 283203. (U.P.),
E-mail: loknagrikkalyansamiti@gmail.com and info@loknagrikkalyansamiti.org Website:
www.loknagrikkalyansamiti.org

The organization works for the poor, orphans, old aged persons, differently abled
persons, children and women by supporting various government programmes.

V Citizens Action Network (V CAN), 42 A, Acropolis, 28 A, Little Gibbs Road, Malabar Hill,
Mumbai 400006, Ph. +91 22 2364 0113 Website http://togethervcan.in/?cat=7

It is a single platform which deals with multiple issues that effects a Citizens daily life.
Citizens can visit the web portal to check information for their particular problems and
also get solutions.

Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship & Democracy, 4th Floor, UNI Building, Thimmiah Road,
Vasanth Nagar Bangalore 560052, Ph. +91-80-40790400 Fax: +91-80-41277104
Email: info@janaagraha.org Website: www.janaagraha.org

Janaagraha is a non-profit organization based in Bangalore, India. It works with citizens

and the government to improve the quality of life in Indian cities and towns.

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) :Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Ministry of Youth
Affairs and Sports (Government of India) Core - IV, IInd Floor, Scope Minar, Laxmi Nagar District
Centre, Delhi - 110 092 (India) Ph. no: 91-11-22402800 / 22446070 Fax: 91-11-22446069
Website http://nyks.org/ Barabanki Office: Phone:05248-220742 and Sangrur Office:
Phone:0672-233274

NYKS is the largest grassroots level voluntary organization; one of its kind in the world. It
channelizes the power of youth who are in the age group of 13-35 years on the principles
of voluntarism, self-help and community participation.
National Service Scheme (NSS), New Delhi 12/11, Jamnagar House, New Delhi, Ph.:- 9111-23073324, 23384513 Email: - pacell-nss@nic.in
National Service Scheme, Uttar Pradesh Office Address: Babuganj, Hasanganj, Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh 226007
NSS, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, NSS Regional Center, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports ,1-C,
Pooja Complex, Fatehpura, Nr Paldi Post office, Ahmedabad, Gujrat-380007
Ph. 91-79-26603141, 26610043, Email: nssahmedabad@gmail.com, ssrcahmedabad@gmail.com

NSS helps the students develop appreciation to other person's point of view and also
show consideration to other living beings.

CREA New York, 16 East 16th Street, 7th Floor, New York NY 10003 USA, Ph. 1 212 599 1071
Fax: 1 212 599 1075, Email: crea@creaworld.org
CREA, 7 Mathura Road, 2nd Floor, Jangpura B, New Delhi 110014 Ph.91 11 2437 7707, 91 11
2437 8700, 91 11 2437 8701, Fax: 91 11 2437 7708 Email: crea@creaworld.org

CREA is a feminist human rights organization based in New Delhi. Together with partners
from a diverse range of human rights movements and networks, CREA works to advance
the rights of women and girls, and the sexual and reproductive freedoms of all people.

Kat Katha, 10-B, Highway apartments, SFS Flats, Gazipur, Delhi-110096 Email: care@katkatha.org

It works with women in brothels and support them to fulfil their aspirations that gives
them new avenues of sustenance, personal freedom, self -reliance and acceptance of
their work and themselves.

STOP (STOP- Trafficking and Oppression of Women and Children) C-570, JVTS Garden,
Road no. 5, Chattarpur Extension, New Delhi-110074, India, Phone: + 91-11- 65578290,
24535462 Mobile: +91-9818372481, Email: romadeba@vsnl.com Web site http://www.stopindia.org/

It works to stop trafficking and oppression through education, legal movements and
rescuing children and women from various forms of slavery and trafficking. It also
provides opportunities for survivors to realize their potential and to become empowered
individuals and agents of change.

MARG, The Marg Foundation, Army & Navy Building, 3rd Floor, 148, Mahatma Gandhi Road,
Mumbai 400001, India. Phone: 022-22842520, 22821151, 22045947, Fax: 022-22047102
Email: margfound@vsnl.net Website: www.marg-art.org

Marg is a Mumbai-based not-for-profit publisher whose mission is to engage and

augment interest in Indian art and culture. It strives to spark debate on all aspects of art
and culture among academics, critics, cultural connoisseurs and readers.

NEETI Foundation, A- 33, First Floor, Feroze Gandhi Road, Lajpat Nagar-II, New Delhi 110024
Ph. 011 46625587, Email info@neeti.foundation Website www.neeti.foundation

Neeti Foundation is an independent think tank, emerging as a centre of excellence for

public affairs and advocacy. It is a public policy research and training network based in
New Delhi.

RECOMMENDED PROGRAMMES
From Kamal Kumar Kar, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
National
Service
Scheme
(NSS),
Programme
Adviser's
Cell
National Service Scheme (NSS), 12/11, Jamnagar House, New Delhi, Ph. : 91-11-23073324,
23384513, E-mail : pacell-nss@nic.in Website: http://nss.nic.in/

Launched on Gandhiji's Birth Centenary Year in 1969, NSS focuses on the development
of personality of students through community service. Today, NSS has more than 3.2
million student volunteers on its roll spread over 298 Universities and 42 (+2) Senior
Secondary Councils and Directorate of Vocational Education all over the country.

From Siddhartha Kumar, Ottawa, Canada

Making Votes count http://www.makingvotescount.ca/making-votes-count-where-we-live

Making Votes Count Where We Live seeks to put in place tools that will increase the
capacity of women leaders and community organizations in Ottawa to empower low
income residents in raising their views within the electoral processes and on-going civic
engagement.

Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres http://www.coalitionottawa.ca/

The Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centers of Ottawa (CHRC) is a network
of multi-service, community-based health and resource centers, which recognizes the
importance of responding to the diversity of needs within local communities and supports
those who are most vulnerable and at risk.

City for All Women Initiative (CAWI) http://www.cawi-ivtf.org/

CAWI (City for All Women Initiative) is a unique collaborative of women from diverse
communities, organizations, and academia working with municipal decision makers to
create a more inclusive city and promote gender equality.

From Aafreen Siddiqui, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra

Prime Ministers Rural Development Fellows (PMRDF)
http://rural.nic.in/sites/programmes_pmrdfs.asp

PMRD Fellows Scheme is an initiative of Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD),

Government of India (GoI). Its objective is to improve the development programmes as
well as to build a cadre of development facilitators for rural development activities.

Krantijyoti
http://krantijyotimaharashtra.blogspot.in/

It is a Capacity Building Training Project of The State Election Commission, Maharashtra

to empower elected women representatives in rural Maharashtra. The Project is now
being implemented across Maharashtra with innovative modules.

From Sunita Menon, Breakthrough, New Delhi

Various Campaigns of Breakthrough:
Nation against Early Marriage

http://www.breakthrough.tv/earlymarriage/againstearlymarriage%e2%80%8f/

Through this Breakthrough works within the communities in the Indian states of Bihar
and Jharkhand, which have the highest rates of child marriage in the country, to delay
the age of marriage.

Bell Bajao
http://www.breakthrough.tv/o/explore/campaign/bell-bajao/

Breakthrough works in Jharkhand, Bihar, U.P., Karnataka, Delhi and Haryana to enable a
critical mass of change-makers to stand for human rights in their own spheres and
beyond.

Hitesh Khanna, Abinash Chaudhary and Suraj Kumar, Neeti Foundation, New Delhi
Neeti-ET-NOW Roundtable on Reforms for Economy in Elections and Electoral
Processes
http://www.neeti.foundation/events-elections-and-electoral.php

The event was a policy roundtable organized on Leveraging Technology for Economy in
Elections and Electoral Processes.

From : Indrani Malkani, V Citizens Action Network (VCAN), Malabar Hill , Mumbai
TogetherVCAN's SOCIAL SANCHAR
http://togethervcan.in/?page_id=1007

Social Sanchars are designed for Citizens to easily interact with Government Officials. It
is very necessary for all of us to get involved to help ourselves, by identifying the
problem issues, working with all stake holders, and finding a solution which is both
Implementable and Sustainable.

Recommended Tools and Technologies

From Suresh Goduka, Chief Electoral Office, Assam
Draft samples for Partnerships and specific purposes
Document : Sample table
Permission required: No
Available at: http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/INPUTS_on_strategies_for_SVEEP-Suresh_Goduka.pdf

The tool is a useful reference for developing partnership with different stakeholders.

Draft samples letter for prospective agencies requesting cooperation

Document : Sample letter
Permission required: No
Available
at:
http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/INPUTS_on_strategies_for_SVEEP_draft_letter-Suresh_Goduka.pdf

The tool is a useful reference for seeking cooperation and support for campaigns.

Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) (From Aparna Lall, Association for
Democratic Reforms, New Delhi)
Document : It is a gateway to interconnect two or more disparate networks, including performing
protocol conversion
Permission required: Yes
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSD_Gateway

A USSD Gateway routes USSD messages from the signaling network to a service
application and back. It can be used in campaigns to provide candidate information as
well as encouragement for ethical voting.

From Aafreen Siddiqui, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra

Maharashtra SVEEP activity calendar
Document: Sample calendar for planning activities
Permission required: No
Available
at:
http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Annex_1_SVEEP_Calendar_Maharashtra.pdf

It is a calendar used for planning of activities over a period of few months for the
Systematic Voter Education and Electoral participation (SVEEP) programme in
Maharashtra.

Sahi Nishaan Ambassadors guide

Document : Guide book
Permission required: No
Available
at:
http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Annex_2_Sahi_Nishaan_Ambassadors'_Guide_(English).pdf

It is a guide book for making electors think and arrive at an informed vote. It is a mass
awareness tool.

Android Application of Sahi Nishaan

Document : Mobile application
Permission required: Yes
Available
at:
http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Annex_3_Sahi_Nishaan_Android_Application.jpg

It is a mobile application used for creating awareness among voters.

Sahi Nishaan Candidate Assessment sheet

Document : Mobile application
Permission required: No
Available
at:http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Annex_4_Sahi_Nishaan_Candidate_Assessment_Sheet(English).pdf

The assessment sheet promotes ethical voting by giving marks to the contesting
candidates on the basis of various social performance parameters.

Recommended Portals and Information base

ACE Electoral Knowledge Network (from Alieda Ferreyra, Electoral Policy Specialist, UNDP
New York)
http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/ve/default

It is an online knowledge repository that provides comprehensive information and

customized advice on electoral processes. The website contains in-depth articles, global
statistics and data, an Encyclopedia of Elections, information on electoral assistance,
observation and professional development, region- and country-specific resources,
daily electoral news, an election calendar, quizzes, expert networks etc

Life-Line to Citizen (LL2C) (from Gopalakrishnan Devanathan, Social Activist, ICT and eGovernance Consultant)
http://ll2b.blogspot.in/

LL2C is a bottom-up initiative to empower every Citizen by giving them a unique identity
and an e-Platform for transaction tracking anytime, anywhere with Government (local,
national and international) and Business / Service Providers (G2C, B2C, G2G, G2B, etc.)

from the village to the national / global level on a single web based e-Platform for
empowerment, transparency, accountability, poverty alleviation etc.
Forum for public interaction (from Siddhartha Kumar, Ottawa, Canada)
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/letter-make-ottawa-more-welcoming-for-immigrants.

This is an online forum where Members write in public media to highlight issues. While
this initiative is unique to Ottawa, it has made voters realize that their vote matters and
that they are as important as anybody else as an electorate.

Association for Democratic reforms (from N. Ramakrishnan, Ideosync Media Combine,

Faridabad, Haryana) http://adrindia.org/

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) was established in 1999 by a group of
professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad. Its goal is to
improve governance and strengthen democracy by continuous work in the area of
Electoral and Political Reforms.

From Aafreen Siddiqui, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra

Panchayats (Extension to Schedule Areas) Act, 1996
http://ncscst.nic.in/panchayats.htm (21KB)

The Act provides for the extension of the provisions of Part IX of the Constitution
relating to the Panchayats to the Scheduled Areas.

Together We can
http://togethervcan.in/?cat=7

The website has various initiatives that were engaged and proven successful in bringing
out the reluctant voters from silent and plush pocket residents in big cities to vote.

Suvarna Raj, Social Worker, Delhi

Persons with Disabilities (Equal opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1995
http://socialjustice.nic.in/pwdact1995.php?pageid=1

The Act provides for full participation and equality of the People with Disabilities in the
Asian and Pacific Region.

Related Consolidated Replies

Strengthening Decentralization and Devolution. From George Mathew (Institute of
Social Sciences), Rita Sarin (The Hunger Project), Manoj Rai (PRIA), Lysa John (Wada
Na Todo Abhiyan), Amitabh Behar (National Centre for Advocacy Studies). Discussion
Summary issued 14 May 2009. Download PDF (Size: 254 KB).

Seeks views and suggestions on strengthening decentralization and devolution in the

context of the elections

Educational Qualifications for Local Body Elections-Examples; Experiences, from

Prakash Bacharwala, SIRD, Ahmedabad. Issued 23 December 2008. Download PDF (Size:
142.43 KB).

Seeks experiences on prescription of qualifications for contestants of local body elections

and the impact of such provisions on their functioning and seat reservations

Inputs on designing Panchayat Election Voter Awareness Campaign- Experiences;

Advice. From Awanesh Kalik, Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd., Lucknow. Issued
22 April 2010. Download PDF

Seeks suggestions on designing a Pre-Election Voter Awareness Campaign for Panchayat

elections in Uttar Pradesh
Regularizing Elections to Panchayats- Advice. From C.P John, Kerala. Issued 22
December 2010. Download PDF.

Seeks inputs on conditions in Central/State legislations, changes in size, number, seat

reservations, role of State Election Commissions in timely PRI elections
Expenses related to PRI Elections- Experiences; Advice. From Subhash
Mendhapurkar, SUTRA, Himachal Pradesh. Issued 30 March 2011. Download PDF
(Size: 149 KB).

Seeks experiences on controlling election expenses in PRI elections including the role of
State Election Commissions.

Residence Requirements for Panchayat Functionaries, from Toms. K Thomas, ESAF,

Thrissur (Experiences). Issued 8 February 2007. Download PDF version (Size: 315 KB).

Discusses constitutional provisions and state Panchayati Raj laws, and cites experiences
in regard to residence requirement for election as Panchayat functionaries.

Modified Works under NREGS during Panchayat Elections, from SRUSTI, Nuapada
(Experiences) - Cross posted with Poverty Work and Employment Community. Issued on 14
January 2007. Download PDF version (Size: 140 KB).

Seeks to know if new works, included in the revised perspective plan of NREGS, can be
taken up under NREGS during Panchayat Elections.

Voting Rights for Migrant Labour in Panchayat Elections, from ANANDI, Ahmedabad
(Examples). Issued on 4 December 2006. Download PDF version (Size: 97 KB) .

Seeks experiences and examples on facilities that could be given to migrant labour to
exercise their voting rights away from their villages of domicile

Responses in Full
Bibhu Prasad Mohanty, Independent Development Consultant, Coach and Trainer,
CSR, Food & Livelihood Security, Gender Equity, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
It is a great topic for discussion. The topic has a call to entire nation to take casting of vote very
seriously. I suggest the election commission must put this message in every hospital, panchayat
offices and prominent places along with TV and radio advertisements. Even the importance of
casting vote must be there in regional language in all the prominent places. It must be
mentioned that casting vote is a basic expression of love towards Mother India. The messages
should be ensuring corruption free India and must be linked with household prosperity and
bettering life.
Alieu Momarr Njai, Independent Electoral Commissioner, The Gambia, Africa
Greetings from The Gambia !
With reference to the questions raised in the query, ECI may wish to consider the following:

The groups left out includes those imprisoned; hospitalized and in remote villages;

Reaching out to them should be legalized; enforced and followed by continuous voter
education programmes;
Reaching out to various CSO, Institutions etc. should include publications, inducements,
frequent visits to schools and institutions etc;
Organise meetings at village levels throughout to create awareness by emphasizing that
it is incumbent that each and every community must have their chosen representatives
to serve at Central and Local Governments to ensure that their communities also benefit
in national development.

Wishing you every success.

Srijan Prabhakar, Media Support Executive, ECI, New Delhi

With reference to the questions raised in the query, I would like to share my views as below:

Some of the groups that may have not participated in the electoral process are persons
with disability, transgender, devdasis, commercial sex workers or even some of the
educated elite working class;

The best way to reach out to these groups are through social media and traditional
community media or through community workers to facilitate and help the community
assess their own situation regarding voter awareness and involving them in evolving
solutions to their problem. Thus enhancing their participation and making them aware of
their rights as voters;

Election Commission should involve the Civil Society Organizations to educate and
encourage citizens to participate. This can be done through social and community media;

Most effective ways of reaching out to the grassroots communities are through traditional
media such as street theatre, popular cultural practices like use of RAP songs among the
youth community, graffiti, wall paintings and community radio.

Binoy Acharya, UNNATI, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

The ECI has taken many important steps to improve citizen engagement in the general
elections. Some of my suggestions to further improve the provisions are as follows:
On the date of the pooling, it has been observed that some people complaint about the
deletion of names in the voter list which they only find out after going to their traditional
pooling booth. Such people have valid election card, but for some reason the names are
not entered in the voter list. My interaction with these people indicate that they are
serious voters, but could not get the name checked/verified before the date of pooling.
The names are put up in the website, however, many are not informed about the
existence of the website. The pre-pool IEC campaign can be better designed with clear
message of what to do to ensure that the name of the voter is entered in the voter list
and avoid any surprise on arrival at the booth;

The role of election observers are much talked about and also appreciated. However,
these observers work without any visibility. The election observer needs to be made
visible and accessible to people. Students from prominent law school, management

institutions, leading civil society organisations may be attached to the team of election
observers to help in getting access to cases and timely reporting. At every district level,
one reputed civil society organisation may be attached to the Chief Returning Officer
(District Collector) to oversee the election process and provide independent feedback. A
small grant may also be provided to cover the expenses of the team towards travel,
accommodation and food. In other words, the scope and effectiveness of the election
observer may require reform;

Constituency wise background information on the candidates may be published in local

newspapers and hand bills are printed and circulated. This is the best form to know the
background of the candidates;

Despite the SC ruling, AADHAR card has been made mandatory for all types of proof of
eligibility. Such practices may be stopped with clear notification and announcement in
local newspapers;

For IEC, besides the electronic and print media, hand bills may be issued by the
Returning Officer giving all relevant information. It has been observed that the official
hand bills also help both officers handling the matter and people to develop clear
understanding of the process. People often preserve those hand bills and produce if
there is any difficulty in interpretation by any official.

These are some quick thoughts.

Sunita Menon, Breakthrough, New Delhi
Breakthrough (www.breakthrough.tv) is a global human rights organization working to make
violence against women and girls unacceptable. Our mission is to prevent violence against
women and girls by transforming the norms and cultures that enable it. We carry out this mission
by building a critical mass of change agents worldwide the Breakthrough Generation whose
bold collective action will deliver irreversible impact on the issue of our time. We create
innovative, relevant multimedia campaigns, tools and programs that reach individuals and
institutions where they are, inspiring and equipping them to build a world in which all people live
with dignity, equality, and justice. With programs challenging early marriage Nation against Early
Marriage, gender-biased sex selection Mission Hazaar, sexual harassment, domestic violence Bell
Bajao! in 6 states of India Jharkhand, Bihar, U.P., Karnataka, Delhi and Haryana. Our work
enables a critical mass of change-makers to stand for human rights in their own spheres and
beyond.
Proposed action to improve the electoral participation in India
What are the groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted?

People with disability; transgender groups, working population in emergency services/

neighbouring states / BPOs catering to foreign companies, transport workers, NRIs,
Urban youth and middle class population; marginalized labourers including domestic
workers needs to be targeted.

What are the strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new
strategies to reach out to the groups that have been left out to enhance enrolment
and participation in elections?

Increasing political awareness and pride in participating in electoral process;

Know your candidate Give details of all participating candidates. Name; Symbol and
Brief about them;
Increasing the visibility of Election Commission as strong, credible, committed, no
nonsense institution. Example in the lines of Delhi Metro;
Promote postal voting or online voting with stringent controls if possible for people
working in emergency services; NRI etc;
Online mobilization using Twitter; Face book; news digest for young people through
Buzz Feed; Upworth; RSS feed, Scoopwoop;
Promote pride through selfies campaign where people can post their photo with ink
mark;
Get responsible opinion leaders and celebrities from across industries to endorse the
process;
Tie up with trade unions; market associations; RWAs to promote voting;
Connect voting with access to government schemes; corporate discounts through tie
ups;
Make mobilization round the year process than just wait for election time. The
election commission office to conduct Be a part of democracy drive where they
reach out to different stakeholders;
Use traditional media like TV, Radio, Print, Bill Boards. Mid Media like Mobile vans;
melas, events, on the ground mobilization through street theatre, magic shows,
school and college debates, programs;
Announce awards for most voter turnout constituency in each state.

In what ways, can the Election Commission reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion
leaders, educational institutions, youth/student volunteer networks and other formal
and informal groups to strengthen voter awareness and participation?

Conduct regular consultative meets; think tanks;

Tie up with these groups for conducting on the ground mobilization. Give
acknowledgement of tie ups; letter of reference to them; connect them to
government funds for promoting governance and democracy; participation
certificates to youth;
Opinion Leaders Joint Press Conferences; TV spots, radio spots through radio
channels etc.

What are the effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of
community mobilization that can be adopted by Election Commission?

Conduct 360 degree campaign for electoral mobilization of mass media; mid media,
on the ground;
Make enrolment easy and accessible;
Multi - sectoral approach for political awareness and voter rights.

Dhirendra Krishna, IA and AS (Retired), New Delhi

I feel we should involve college students in propagating democratic process by reaching out to
persons who do not vote.

Election Commission should work out the list of persons who have not voted in previous election;
prepare a letter exhorting them to vote and use college students to meet them with structured
questionnaire and report the reasons for not voting.
Let us try it as a pilot project in few cities.

Nishant Saxena, Technical Expert, Chief Electoral Office, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
I examined the presentations and draft note shared by ECI with you and I now have the
following inputs/suggestions, which may be considered while finalising SVEEP-III:

ECI may explore possibilities of getting the option of Linking of EPIC number with
Aadhaar included in the Aadhaar enrolment for all adult/voting residents. As of now, a
resident only has the option to give consent for linking of Bank Account and EPIC is just
one of the many supporting documents for UID enrolment. If residents get this option to
give their consent for linking EPIC with UID they would feel relieved and spared from the
effort to get EPIC and UID linked separately. This would initiate a two-way synergy
between UIDAI and ECI that would eventually speed up and sharpen NERPAP. The
relevance of EPIC would further get a boost;

Nationally relevant public figures that are regular in expressing opinions in newspapers
may be encouraged to write articles promoting a participative democracy;

ECI may consider pushing for a GR (Government Resolution) to introduce a mandatory

course in Electoral Literacy at the Graduation Level. In 2011, a GR was passed for a
paper on Environmental Studies;

Arunima Sinha, a young female amputee who conquered Mt Everest on one leg, may be
projected as a youth Icon to encourage youngsters and also make the physically disabled
feel represented and included in the mainstream;

Blogs may be invited and hosted on the ECI website, after due editorial moderation of
course;

ECI in association with MoHFW, may consider inclusion of Voter Awareness messages on
contraceptives. This may sound frivolous, but an intelligently framed message may be
highly effective on such a platform. Sex Workers may be included in the initiative as well;

Mere presence on social media is of no good use. The presence has to be about
engaging with the target audience. In simple terms, there should be a dialogue not
monologue on social media platforms. Social media has to be essentially used for
dispelling rumours/responding to queries, tracking users/statuses of various services,
sharing success stories, and of course awareness. SVEEP III must lay special emphasis
on effective social media presence.

Aleida Ferreyra, Electoral Policy Specialist, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support
(BPPS), United Nations Development Programme, New York
One of the key elements of a good civic and voter education campaign is to have clear
assessment beforehand of education needs, specific target groups and the way people get the
information. Youth, women, minorities would require different formats, languages, etc. Even

among youth, you will find that messages, formats, media use will vary. They allow also to have
clear benchmarks for evaluating the impact of the intervention (something that voter education
programmes cannot do without this early assessment). I say this because some of the most
successful examples that I have seen that we supported in this regard, really did early on and
help them develop a clear strategy.
In old electoral project in Indonesia, the assessment found out that most people use to get
information through TV. The electoral project partner with famous local actors and TV stations
and develop soap opera type of voter education TV spots. They became very popular and
effective in carrying the message around. In Tunisia, they focused mainly on youth people and
also partner with some artist and radio stations to produce a song/video for calling to people to
participate. The song became very popular among young people and was played in the radio all
the time. The electoral project also launch some democracy games for youth and the two
winners got a trip to New York to see the UN and meet the Secretary General. In Bhutan and
Nepal, our electoral project have used theatre using local languages and actors in open spaces,
plazas. In other countries, some of the programmes targeting youth have used text messages,
concerts and other social events such as sports to disseminate message.
In many countries radio is still the main vehicle. A key aspects also is the right combination of
format with language. For example, I have seen programmes that have translated to different
indigenous/minorities languages printing materials without even thinking if the people speaking
these languages know how to read and write. In some indigenous communities, for example,
including community local leaders and taking in consideration the local customs are very
important that would be the best way to approach them.
There is also a guidance note that UNDP developed over a decade ago, but I think it is still
relevant to the discussion. Members can also look for examples in the Voter Education, ACE
Encyclopedia, ACE Electoral Knowledge Network: http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/ve/default
Finally, we developed a publication on youth participation in the electoral cycle (it does not
necessarily focus on voter education exclusively), but it may be useful. The document can be
downloaded
from
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democraticgovernance/electoral_systemsandprocesses/enhancing-youth-political-participation-throughoutthe-electoral.html
I hope this is helpful.

Subhash Mendhapurkar, SUTRA, Solan, Himachal Pradesh

The question that EC should ask itself is: which section of the community needs a Government?
The answer it shall get is : poor, marginalized, minorities (religion/sex orientation) tribal and
women from disadvantaged section and thus it shall find that these are the groups who go to the
polling booth, stand in the long queues and vote. (Refer to Ms Razia Patels Study under TIMES
Fellowship
at
http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Indian_Muslim_women_by_Razia_Patel.pdf). These are the very
section that are mobilized by the workers of a political party and are brought to the voting booth.
The next question is : which section of the population is least bothered about `having a
government the Election Commission shall get an answer : it is the elites (population of say
South Extension of Delhi or Hingewadi, upper Kothrud areas of Pune) as these are the sections
that can survive without having a government or a government of any ideology, as their
dependence on the government is least. The activist or workers of political parties have no
capacity to reach out to these section and even if they reach, this section do not pay heed to
them. Experience also shows that this is the section that is highly unreliable for political parties

as they cannot sway their opinion in one way or other, so they are also reluctant to approach
them.
The results of General elections of 2014, have shown that roughly 30% population that is elite
has not bothered to vote even after appeals by celebrities like Amir Khan. This is the section
that is demanding `on-line voting so that they can sit in their AC rooms and vote. Over a
period, after Independence the Government, constitutional bodies and CSOs have developed
their capacities to deal with issues of disadvantaged communities and thus have no experience of
how to deal with the issues created by elites or upper middle class (an example may sound out
of place, but let me quote: the declining child sex ratio is an issue created by `haves and thus
efforts made by CSOs and Government between 2001 to 2011 to improve child sex ratio failedrefer census 2011). Thus, we need to concentrate on this section of the society.
I attended one of the meeting organized by Election Commission at Bhubaneshwar couple of
years back and I found the presentations made by various Election Officers especially from
Gujarat and Chhattisgarh were religiously skewed. Given this situation, I think, having 2/3
population going to the booth and voting, is a great achievement. The mother of Democracy UK,
also had more or less same percentage of population voting (I remember it was 64% in recent
elections- correct me if I am wrong).
My recommendation to the fellow CSOs and EC are simple, be secular in your campaign keep a
watch when local election officers try to de-secularize the campaign and take appropriate action.
Try to reach out to Students Unions and unions of minorities religion, sexual orientation.
Create special booths for sex workers in their localities. I have seen few such efforts been
made in Pune and in Delhi.
Migrant workers should be allowed to vote through postal ballot like the Arms Forces. To reach
out to migrant workers, EC should involve CSOs working with them for example NIRMAN in Delhi
works with migrant workers from Jharkhand and construction workers in Delhi, they have a large
data base. There is also a similar organization in Udaipur who work with migrant workers from
Udaipur, Dungarpur and Banswada, one can find their name and address on net, same is the
case in Odisha. Involve organizations who work with people with different sexual orientation
like SANGRAM of Bengaluru. The EC should develop a data bank on CSOs who work with these
sections of the population and hold consultation and find ways and means how voters from these
sections would feel `safe whilst standing in the queue or any special arrangements are to be
made.
My hat is off for election officers who reach far off areas of Himachal Pradesh and
Uttarakhand like Spiti valley and Mansari valley and make sure that people vote there.

Bhim Raskar, Resource and Support Centre for Development (RSCD), Belarpur, Navi
Mumbai (Response-1)
Mahila Rajsatta Andolan (MRA) is working with elected women leaders in Maharashtra and some
parts of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. I would like to share some of the strategies adopted
by MRA in Maharashtra during the recent elections.

Conducted Mass election campaign just, before parliament election on No Note - for
Vote" by inviting reputed dignitaries of the state;
Door to door board campaign saying that - "Please don't come to us, we will not
sale our vote" in Latur District;

Bhramdan Mukta Matdan, means election free from Corruption, Mutton, Liquor and
any intoxicants. This campaign was run through Special bulletin for Elected Women
Representatives;
Poster and Banner campaign on importance of election based on thoughts of local
reformers, who are very popular like "Sant Tukadoji' in Vidharbha. Importance of
election in day to day life of a citizen was explained to them;
Capitalization on local festivals like Holi (Indian festival). In this collective village
festival, we promoted removal of evils and corruption from election;
Village level Oath ceremonies for fair and responsible voting in election;
Similar to the Lokpal Bill for Parliament, "Local lokpal bills for voters" can also be
prepared by voters during local elections. If voter prepares bill for themselves; it will be
very effective and sustainable;
Paid News - Sad News campaign could be very useful for electronic media. Channels
must put 24X7 slogan on their screen to support the campaign.

During our interactions with the community at the field level, we have found that responsible
candidates from marginalized sections of the society are facing the following obstacles:

Superficial decentralization process;

Election is treated as a commercial investment by political parties;
Women representation and proxy governance.

I believe that SVEEP can become an important tool for the behavioural change of voters,
candidates, parities and leaders. We can then say - Join Politics - to change Politics.
The document titled Towards Fair Election & Governance can be downloaded from
http://solutionexchange-un.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Towards_fair_Election_and_Governance.pdf

Raghavendra. V, Joint CEO , Karnataka

Regarding the Strategies for SVEEP, I would like to share my views as below:
1. What are the groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted?
Reaching the un-reached to be the main focus.

The Tribal and other disadvantaged groups like semi-nomadic people;

The socially marginalized groups of the trans-genders;
Coastal area people. Fisherman Community;
Focus on Remote Villages;
Migrant Population (Rural to Urban, Rural to Rural, Urban to Rural and Urban to
Urban).

2. What are the strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new
strategies to reach out to the groups that have been left out to
enhance enrolment and participation in elections?
A mass campaign mode of action coupled with micro approach to reach the most vulnerable
and marginalized communities should be adopted. There is a general disenchantment among
the Tribals on account of there not being any perceptible change in the infrastructure and human
development conditions. A conducive atmosphere can be built by establishing a direct and sincere
communication between election authorities and the citizens. Partnership with tribal welfare

organizations to have larger reach. Events like meetings at each tribal settlement can be planned.
Survey of marginalized groups to be done and appropriate remedial measures to be adopted to
address the gaps identified by the survey. The data available in various departments can be
integrated to find out the left out people and special enrolment drive can be planned.
Involvement of District Tribal Welfare Officer, Social Welfare Officer, Women and Child Welfare
Officer to carry out enrolment in a planned manner. Sensitization programme for
fishermen community to be done in association with Fisheries department.
3. In what ways, can the Election Commission reach out to relevant CSOs , opinion
leaders, educational institutions, youth/student volunteer networks and other formal
and informal groups to strengthen voter awareness and participation?
Election Commission can encourage Students to take up Election Related Projects as part of their
curriculum. Encourage students to text their friends and send Facebook messages, Whatsapp messages to their friends on voter awareness and participation. Election Commission can set
up FORUMS to discuss about the voter awareness and participation.
4. What are the effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of
community mobilization that can be adopted by Election Commission?

Establishing partnership with active Non-Governmental Agencies and Community Based

Organisations;
Involving Political Parties in the process by sharing the draft enrolment roll with them
and encouraging them to share any gaps they come across;
Partnership with organisations like Business associations, Industrial associations, Cultural
Organisations, Hotel Owners associations etc to reach larger community;
Opening of Voter Facilitation Centres at all the prominent public places like Hospitals,
Bus stands, Railway stations, Banks, Cinema Halls, Malls, Airport, Places of Worship etc;
Circulating information handouts to families through school children;
One to one meeting with the community members to motivate them to come forward
and enrol;
Partnerships with Urban Welfare associations to spread awareness;
Launching voluntary based interventions like door to door campaigns by undergraduate
and post graduate students.

Hitesh Khanna, Abinash Chaudhary and Suraj Kumar, Neeti Foundation, New Delhi
The ECI has done a commendable job getting ever higher voter turnout percentages and the
recent elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies have in part retuned decisive results due
to the high numbers of voters who came out and exercised their franchise/ suffrage. Even where
assemblies have been hung and coalitions have been formed, the results are decisive at the level
of regions within a state.
Further increase in voter participation in elections can now go beyond the incremental stage if

ECI focuses its campaign on those constituencies that have this far seen sub-50% turnout and;
If the candidates and parties also step up their efforts at getting their constituents to
vote

At a recent Neeti-ET-NOW Roundtable on Reforms for Economy in Elections and Electoral

Processes, the political leaders presented their perspectives and experiences one senior leader

and sitting Member of Parliament from the BJP recounted a case where he saw nearly 500 people
sitting near a polling booth but not voting because they had been paid to not vote.
In such a context, it would be critical for civil society organizations to work not only with ECI
(supply-side intervention) but also with political parties. Our research has shown that the narrowmargin (less than 5 per cent difference between the winning candidate and the second
candidate) has risen to nearly 20 per cent of total results. Indeed there has been a case where a
candidate in Rajasthan lost by one vote in the 2008 Assembly elections. The number of
constituencies where literally every vote counts is on the rise. Therefore there is a demandside interest to get additional voter turn-out as the verdicts are decided on the margin.
Clearly, the ECI in its efforts to increase voter turnout cannot be involved directly with political
parties as it has to be completely impartial. However, it can engage in a non-partisan manner
through public dialogue and campaigns. Moreover, civil society organizations and think-tanks can
take up research and evidence-based advocacy with campaign managers of parties and
candidates across the board. Once parties and candidates have data on hitherto un-mobilised
voters, the efforts to mobilise these groups (including addressing their concerns and removal of
any constraints in the way of their voting) would receive an additional fillip.
Different social groups/ categories have differing constraints to their ability to actually vote.
Accordingly, the strategies to get them to vote would also vary. In case of migrants, policy action
may be required to get them to vote from their existing place of residence. This is done for NRIs
in any case. Technologies such as e-voting have been tried in other countries and global
experience needs to be documented critically.
In case of stigmatised or socially marginalised communities such as sex workers or LGBT
community, it may be useful to work with opinion leaders in these groups. Indeed, just as special
efforts are made in local elections to encourage women to run for office, it may be useful to
initiate capacity building programmes to equip aspiring leaders with the skills and know-how to
run for public office.
The canvas is very large for further widening democracy by bringing ever larger number of
people into the voting booths - one way of making a start is to build coalitions of NGOs and
think-tanks that work with both electoral authorities (who conduct elections) and parties/
candidates (who contest elections).
Kavindra Kulkarni, Prime Minister Rural Development Fellow, Sonebhadra UP and
Sonitpur Assam
As per my view, SVEEP got major success in every district in the country. I worked as a District
Coordinator-SVEEP during election period in Sonebhadra Uttar Pradesh. As per my observation
the voter participation was more in the recent elections as compared to previous ones. Following
are the reasons:

District administration followed Election Commissions guideline well;

Participative approach adopted while interacting with the community;
Involvement of CSO, NGO, public representatives and private organisation in community
mobilization enhanced the voter turnout;
Discussion of importance of voting in community and public forums like gram sabhas,
school monitoring committees, SHGs groups and CSR committees;
Reaching out to the unreached and coverage of difficult to reach areas;

However despite of above efforts the result was less than expected due to following reasons:

The polling booths were not homogeneously spread and at places they were far away
from community agglomeration;
Voter list was not updated at some places;
Voting was allowed only between 7am to 4 pm in naxal affected areas;
Due to adverse climatic conditions people were not able to come out to vote;
In many of the remote areas, people did not have voter IDs cards;
CRPF personnel, private workers could not avail postal ballots due to lack of information
and facility;
Budget for awareness generation activities was less;
Seriousness of SVEEP programme could be seen and felt only in district officials and
staff, however it did not percolate down to the block and gram panchayat level officials.

Gopalakrishnan Devanathan (Kris Dev), Change Agent for True Democracy, Chennai,
Tamil Nadu
Some of my suggestions are:

Voting should be extended over a one month period from anywhere in the world using a
biometric smart card;

Voting should be for political parties and not individuals;

Voting should be for village / local assembly only. Proportionate representation in village
assembly and out of the persons elected in village assembly elect representatives for
block assembly, district assembly, state assembly and central assembly for true bottomup representative governance;

Not yet voted list should be published and circulated;

Cash circulation should be banned to prevent seat / vote buying using cash;

All transactions must be made using biometric smart card and made public to prevent
bribing in kind;

Voters can be motivated with a cash subsidy of say Rs.1,000 for each voter into their
biometric bank account;

Nothing should be hidden from the eyes of the citizen / public;

True transparency would lead to true accountability and true self-governance.

Life-Line to Citizen (LL2C) is a bottom-up initiative to empower every Citizen by giving them a
unique identity and an e-Platform for transaction tracking anytime, anywhere with Government
(local, national and international) and Business / Service Providers (G2C, B2C, G2G, G2B, etc.)
from the village to the national / global level on a single web based e-Platform for empowerment,
transparency,
accountability,
poverty
alleviation,
etc.
Please
visit
my
blog
http://ll2b.blogspot.com for more articles on election.
Kamal Kumar Kar, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat

National Service Scheme (NSS) is the program for student youth and is implemented all over the
country. NSS got CSO Award for contribution towards SVEEP in 2014. Being a part of the NSS, I
would like to share the strategies and innovative measures adopted by volunteers to reach out to
eligible youths for the implementation of SVEEP in Gujarat state as follows:

Campus Ambassadors (CAs) were nominated in each college campus. They motivated
their peers to enrol in the Electoral Roll. The CAs worked in close coordination with their
Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for enhancing the enrolment as well as voting by the
community;
Best CAs were awarded were identified and awarded during the National Voters Day;
Visits to coaching centres near their place of residence to interact youths for SVEEP
activities;
Organized Signature Campaigns across the states involving eminent personalities to
spread awareness and active participation in election;
Filling up of Oath Forms by people to participate in voting;
During residential camps in villages, the volunteers motivated local people to enrol as
well as vote

We feel that more systematic interventions are required to cover the migratory workers engaged
in the various sectors who moves from one place to another and therefore are not able to enrol
as well as vote.
This year we have planned to intensively work in close coordination with the District Election
Offices across the state for better output.
K. S. Mohannarayana, Department of Political Science and Humanities, SDM
Autonomous College, Ujire, District Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka
To create awareness about significance of voting in Democracy and to motivate people to vote
during elections, I am organising voters awareness campaign since many years, through students
of SDM Autonomous College, Ujire in different Gram Panchayats and villages of Belthangady
Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka State. Students in small groups with pamphlets
and placards visit houses of villagers, explain the importance of voting and request them to vote
compulsorily. The services of degree and post graduate students of Political Science, Sociology,
Master of Social Work and Law may be utilised for this purpose.
If all the educational institutions throughout India is involved in this noble cause, it will be very
easy to reach out youth, women, marginalised sections of society as well as rural and urban
voters. This will also make students responsible citizens because students of today are the
citizens of tomorrow.
To organise Voters Awareness Campaign and Gram Sabha Awareness Campaigns we are taking
the help of Gram Panchayats.
Indrani Malkani, V Citizens Action Network (VCAN), Malabar Hill , Mumbai
Having been associated with the Electoral processes since 2002, I am sharing some observations
and highlights of the work carried out in Mumbai.
My response to the questions raised in the query is as below:
Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted and the strategies to
reach out to the focus groups and also new strategies to reach out to the groups that
have been left out

The Election Staff deputed from the various departments, as well as the Police personnel
deployed on Polling Day are unable to cast their votes. Although Police have recourse to
postal ballot, the feedback is; they are unable to make use of it as they are posted away
from their police stations and they cannot reach on time to cast their vote. In such cases,
provision for casting of their votes prior to the polling date or post the polling date may
be considered;
The Continuous Process Industries (Refineries, Air Traffic Controllers, Dock Workers, Fire
Fighting Staff on duty, Train Drivers and railway staff on long distance trains, Airline
Flying Personnel, Power generating staff etc.) are unable to cast their votes, since they
have their duties to fulfil. A similar provision of flexible times may be considered for them
also.

Election Commission can reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational
institutions, youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups
in following ways:

In respect to CSOs:
All CSOs/NGOs, in whatsoever sector they may operate, have to necessarily concern
themselves with taking the responsibility of educating their dedicated groups regarding
voter awareness and participation as every Adult Indian is entitled to vote. Therefore,
the CSO/NGO must make their members or the target groups they are working with,
aware of the voting enrolment and processes. On its part, the Election Commission
should send appropriate directions and material for the use of the CSOs/NGOs. One way
of identifying and contacting the various CSOs/NGOs is through the Charity
Commissioners and Registrars of Companies (as many NGOs are also registered under
Section 25 of the Companies Act).

In respect of educational institutions and youth/student volunteer networks:

The students of National Service Scheme, popularly known as NSS, under the Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, can be deployed as volunteers. Since
these students require to be involved with projects to secure marks, the Election Process
and Voting Day could be approved as one of their projects. For this purpose, a letter
from the Election Commission of India is required to be sent to the NSS Coordinator,
instructing him/her to send a circular to all colleges to this effect. NSS group of students
are present in all colleges, so the entire city will be covered with volunteers to carry out
the EC directives. The present concept by EC of Campus Ambassadors should be
promoted.

In respect of reaching out to all Citizens/Voters through the use of

information technology:
Apart from Social Media, I am highlighting the use of our Web Portal
www.togethervcan.in. Having recognised some basic challenges faced regularly by
Citizens - specifically in urban areas - we have set up a Web Portal www.togethervcan.in
which, on a single platform, deals with multiple issues that effects a Citizens daily life. So
as Citizens visit the Web Portal to check information for their particular problems,
coincidentally they get to know about electoral process too!

In order to make things even easier for the Citizens, we have launched our live talk show series
titled TogetherVCAN's SOCIAL SANCHAR with the motto Interact with your
Government from wherever you are".

These Social Sanchars enables the online internet audience to connect live with the Guest
Speaker and the in-auditorium audience, from wherever they are, by Twitter, SMS or Skype Chat.
With these live talk shows, we have helped in making the Government and Citizens interaction
much simpler and convenient. It has also played a very important role in bringing to light, the
various issues and problems faced by the Citizens and often to arrive at solutions. In fact, it has
become an attractive platform for Resolution and Solutions to issues plaguing the Citizens. The
Social Sanchar can easily be adapted for the use of EC in multiple aspects.
Effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures/ challenges of
community mobilization
Our activities are at present Mumbai based. Our vision has been to strengthen the Electoral
Processes and ensuring Higher Voter turnout, in an urban setting and identifying strengths of
Mumbai and turning it into a Resource for the EC / CEO Maharashtra. From our experience of
around 15 years working on Election Processes as facilitators and coordinators, it is our
conviction that the following practices may be gainfully employed by EC:

Use of Common Electoral Rolls for Elections conducted by the Election

Commission (EC) and the State Election Commissions (SECs)
We do know, the preparation and revision of electoral rolls for Parliamentary and
Assembly Constituencies are made by the Election Commission, whereas the preparation
and revision of rolls for local bodies i.e. Municipal Corporations, Zillah Parishads etc.
elections are prepared by the concerned State Election Commissions. This not only
creates confusion among the voters, because their names may be present in one roll but
absent in the other, and also results in an enormous duplication of effort and
expenditure. Generally, Citizens are unaware that they have to ensure to get themselves
registered with the EC and the SEC. Incidentally, even the Polling Stations are different
for elections conducted by the SEC. This is asking a bit too much from the Citizens and
this practice is not at all voter friendly nor productive. Therefore we strongly recommend
that the proposal of EC regarding the Use of Common Electoral Rolls be adopted.
Further, the same machinery at the field level should be entrusted with the job of
preparing a Common Electoral Roll under the Election Commission.

Urban Apathy - some problems/challenges identified are:

Urban apathy and indifference of Citizens towards the Electoral Processes, resulting in
low voter turnout;
Highhandedness and uncooperative attitude by Management of the Co-operative Housing
Societies (as seen in Mumbai) towards the Election Staff on their routine visits to the
CHSs for collecting data and related work;
Lack of proper and simplified dissemination of information regarding Electoral processes
prior to Election and on Election Day to the public;
Inaccurate Electoral Rolls (due to non- deletion of deceased voters, the same person
registered in two constituencies, bogus names etc.) which in turn do not show the
accurate voting percentages;
Lack of dedicated staff to continuously work on Electoral processes throughout the year.
This is due to staff being sourced from various Government departments during the
revisions, who lack familiarity with the procedures and are therefore inefficient in
carrying out the work related to Electoral Processes. Due to this, Citizens get frustrated
and abandon their effort in getting themselves either registered or changing information
etc., finally, resulting over time, in apathy;

Lack of faith and trust of Citizens towards the efficiency of work in respect to the offices
of EROs and BLOs;
Polling Stations and Booths are not audited as to their suitability in all aspects of voting,
voter friendliness and conveniences of voters and for polling staff. Often the polling
booths are located on higher floors of buildings, making it impossible for senior citizens
and disabled voters to access the polling booths. In the process the intention of voting is
forfeited;
Adequate car parking facility nearest to the Polling Stations is absolutely necessary,
especially for the old and the infirm. This is one of the major factors which deter voters
from coming to vote
Addressing these aspects will surely result in a high voter turnout.

Some good practices carried out in Mumbai, towards obtaining higher voter turnout

One of the first programmes related to elections which we had executed, was a pilot
project of an audit, appraising the suitability of the polling stations and polling booths.
The pilot audit was carried out by the concerned ERO and myself, armed with feedback
from volunteers, of unsuitable Polling Stations/Booths. We physically checked the
correctness of such reports of unsuitable Polling Stations/Booths. Simultaneously,
alternative Polling Stations/Booths were identified in nearby areas. Once identified as
suitable, as per directives of EC and Supreme Court, these locations were confirmed and
notified for use. The rationale for this exercise was that, if the Polling Stations and
Booths are user friendly for the voters as well as the electoral staff, the tendency
amongst voters is to make the effort to go quickly and cast their vote, thereby voter
mobilization is easier and have higher success rates;
Similarly when the Polling Stations have good and appropriate facilities for the staff on
electoral duty, they are more polite and responsive towards the voters. Further, facilities
which accommodate the needs of senior citizens and the disabled, also encourage such
voters to exercise their franchise;
At the Polling Station Signage giving direction to identify the Polling Booths is most
essential, as Voters are seen to be very confused. In addition, a facilitation desk helps in
directing voters to their respective polling booths.

By implementing the above, during the Lok Sabha Elections 2014 we were able to convey to the
Voters in our target Constituencies, that since the Polling Stations are voter friendly there is no
reason to be apprehensive of going to vote.

Every urban and rural setting has its particular strength, which can be converted to be a
great resource. In Mumbai, the resource lies in the Cooperative Housing Societies
(CHSs). Therefore we carried out our task by collaborating with the Federation of the
Cooperative Housing Societies (CHSs) as all CHSs are compulsorily members of the
Federation and carry out its directives;
During the electoral rolls revision in 2011, it was found that the rolls were greatly
inflated. Primarily this was due to non-deletion of names of deceased persons. Under
section 22 of the RP Act 1950, the EROs are to be intimated of the demise of a person by
the next of kin. This enables the EROs to suitably update the Rolls. However, the next of
kin rarely informs the EROs and over the years the names keep appearing, thereby
inflating the Rolls;
As part of our exercise at VCAN, we embarked on a Pilot Project with some CHSs, to
conduct a survey on the correctness of the Electoral Rolls. It transpired that in just one
small CHS 14 names were discovered of persons who had died and also names of nonexisting persons appearing on the Electoral Rolls. The concerned EROs were promptly
informed in writing by the respective CHS, so that corrective action could be taken at the

earliest. The State of Maharashtra has taken a step in the right direction in this matter,
by issuing Circular No. SGY 2009/C.R. 235/14-S dated 19th April 2010.
Under Section 79A of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 all Office bearers
of Co-operative Housing Societies (CHSs) have to give voluntary support to all BLOs.
Simply put, the Office Bearers of CHSs are to render voluntary support to the BLOs/EROs
in respect to all work that needs to be carried out. Therefore we strongly recommend:

The robust use of Section 79A will galvanize the CHSs and generate authentic data,
which would not otherwise be easily available to EC for the updating of the Electoral
Rolls. Post-Election, it would then reveal a more realistic voting percentage;
To engage with Office Bearers of the Managing Committee of the CHSs and give
them simplified information regarding Electoral Processes, and to sensitize them as
to their role in data collection for the EROs in the updation of Electoral Rolls;
To make a template as a standard format for data collection from the CHSs to ensure
a uniform response to the CEO and Collectors Offices;
CHSs to be informed, that they need to carry out the following, in respect of their
CHS:
Display all material given by the EC through the ERO in a prominent location
in their building, so that the members of their Society be made aware of the
Election Processes;
Display banners containing messages given by EC on the exterior of their
building;
Co-operation to be extended to all staff on Election Duty and representatives
of authorized facilitator organizations of CEO of the State;
Extend such reasonable assistance to EC and all deputed staff as may be
required, so that the Elections may be carried out expeditiously;
To display the relevant section of the Electoral Roll of their CHS, given by the
ERO, on their individual notice board. This will create much awareness
amongst the society members and they can then check their names and also
be motivated to go to vote;
Along with the Electoral Roll, ensure that, the relevant voter slips to the
voters in the building are distributed;

The above measures are also intended to restore faith and trust in the efficient work of the ERO
offices and to encourage and motivate Citizens to proudly cast their votes.

Meet Your Candidates meeting was organised as a tool for motivating voters by raising
their curiosity and enabling them to meet and interact with multiple Candidates on a
common and neutral platform. Even though the ECI and CEO Maharashtra websites gives
the information about the Candidates, Voters like the opportunity to meet their
Candidates face to face to vent their thoughts, ideas, and frustrations which peak at the
Election times. Such meetings are most successful into motivating voters to vote (as per
their choice) when conducted uniformly on neutral platforms. A pyramid effect ensued as
subsequently, our Networking Partners organised similar meetings on a smaller scale in
their own localities using the same template. This is how we multiplied our effectiveness.
The multiplier effect of our Networking Partners is our greatest strength- friends tell their
friends, and so it moves onwards;

Without emphasising on it, voters can be informed of the provision of NOTA. This would
be for the benefit of those voters who may not go to vote due to their dissatisfaction
with the candidates, but would at least vote using NOTA option and thereby exercise
their franchise. By using this provision, such voters would participate in the voting
process and the voter turnout would increase.

We have used a blend of both mass communication as well as direct personal communication
depending on the situation, and the specific message we were trying to put forth.
I have taken this opportunity to share with all of you, some work done in Mumbai, which can be
adapted for other urban areas, as appropriate.
Prof. S Narayan, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi
Please consider right to vote of the followings, as I think they should be given right to vote:

Under trial prisoners who are in jail for more than ten years;
Patient with mental illness, who are cured and are leading normal life but their family
members are not taking them back so they are languishing in jail, for fear of social
stigma;
Tribal and rural women of far flung areas as right to vote has been granted but in real
sense they have no right to vote. Primitive tribals living at the top of hills/mountains have
never voted. Likewise similar examples are numerous.

The above set of people deserve election commissions attention to cast their votes.
Neeta Dubey, Stare Advisor, Skill Development and Capacity Development, Office of
the Chief Minister, Rajasthan
For systematic education about elections, in my views, we may target at the women working as
household help as this is a big group, though not organized in each city of India, as for the urban
areas are concerned . Other groups are already included.
Rural areas could be covered through the SHGs. The RWAs, now a days, exist in almost every
city. If not as recognized as RWAs, there are some or the other forms existing. Organizing
meeting with them would decentralise the process, ensuring deeper penetration.
Bhim Raskar, Resource and Support Centre for Development (RSCD), Belarpur, Navi
Mumbai (Response -2)
Some more inputs to the query are as below:
Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted

We are missing the Aam Aadmi and his language of communication in SVEEP
campaign. We need to identify state wise local language and nodal partners who could
support in translation of the core message as well as its dissemination.

Reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational institutions, youth/student

volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups

Election Commission can reach out through departments of Rural Development and State
Institute of Rural Development of every state. One Civil Society Organization adopting
one block and one Community Based Organization adopting one village can be the
strategy, for effective reach out.

Effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of community

mobilization

The village level local festivals, ceremonies, marriages, fairs and weekly market mark the
agglomeration of local communities. These occasions can be the venue for effective
campaigns.
Manoj Rai, PRIA, New Delhi
Normally 60-70% of voters turn out in any democracy is treated appreciably. So, Election
Commission of India deserves praises for making all efforts to make election process more
citizen-centric. But I wish to congratulate Election Commission of India for not limiting itself to
the so-called appreciable range of voting percentage. It is trying its best to achieve
almost 100% voters turn out. Being very closely associated with PRIAs Pre Election Voters
Awareness Campaigns (PEVAC) in different states since mid-nineties, I am quite optimistic that
reaching closer to 100% voting is very much possible if serious efforts are made to
encourage the voters by creating enabling environment and appropriate system changes.
There are essentially three categories of voters who do not vote:

Those who dont know if they should vote;

Those who know but dont want to vote;
Those who know and want to vote but cant vote due to some problems.

Category 1 used to be the largest one some years back. Now my guess is category 2 and 3
should be somewhere 20-25% of voters. Category 2, from my point of view is a hopeless
category, unless they are incentivized and/or penalized in some different ways. Category 3 is the
critical one. Daily wage earners, staff of some production units, some emergency services such
as medical, transportation, fire et al are part of category 3. This category also includes the
victims of systemic loopholes: missing names in electoral lists and/or lack of appropriate identity
cards. The Election Commission of India should pay special (targeted attention) to category 1
and 3. The category 3 folks are restrained by their circumstances.
Beside awareness campaigns, can ECI think of using innovative mechanism to reach to these
restrained voters for their votes (rather than asking them to come to polling booth). After all
when Government of India started reaching to children, polio was eradicated from our country. It
may be sounding a bit difficult now but ECI should think about it to begin with, in case of
organized emergency services such as hospitals, transportation et al. ECI can share the
responsibilities of valid voting with the employers. Political parties also provide clues to ensure
higher voting. Now they are using booth (volunteer) managers to encourage and enable their
supporters for voting. Sometime these booth managers also discourage some voters from
voting. Can ECI designate its own booth managers with clear-cut targets to ensure that all
registered voters vote? Retired officials of armed forces or credible local NGOs could be some of
possible volunteer booth managers/mobilizers. PRIAs own experiences of seeking supports from
local associations of retired Defence Forces Personals have been very encouraging in enhancing
participation of women and other marginalized sections in Panchayats/Municipal elections in
many states.
In case of voters registration (voters list), partnership with the State Election Commissions and
elected local governments (Panchayats and Municipalities) could be helpful. The ECI and the
SECs should agree to work together for common voters list for conducting the elections at Union,
State and Local levels. In addition following other methods could be helpful in ensuring complete
registration of voters:

Citizens should have multiple options to get themselves registered in voters list. Local
centres such as Anganwadi, Citizen Service Centre, Local Schools, Registered Self Help

Groups, Clubs etc. could act as preliminary registration centres. These centres should
supply data to their respective Panchayats and Municipalities for compilation and
corrections at the levels of Panchayats/Municipalities;
Panchayats and Municipalities (along with the government officials therein) must be
made responsible for ensuring enrolment of all voters from their jurisdictions. The local
governments must also be made responsible for validating the electoral lists. The time
period for enrolment/registration and validation should be enhanced appropriately to
enable citizens appropriately.

Uses of various social media platforms and mobile services are quite significant for informed
mobilization of some particular but large sections of voters. Many of colleagues have already
elaborated this very nicely in their responses.
Finally, Election Commission of India must proactively invite participation of Local Civil Society
Organizations for sharing responsibilities for voters education and voters mobilization. While ECI
HQ is very proactive and participatory, same may not be the case with its extended arms at local
level. So, national and provincial partnership with associations of voluntary organizations (such as
Voluntary Action Network of India VANI, for example at national level) could be helpful in this
direction. Similarly every city has media/press clubs. These clubs and Vernacular Journalists
associations at district levels could be useful potential partners to enhance voter registration and
voting percentages.
Voting percentage in India is already quite good by international standard. However, it needs to
increase significantly. But any further increment in voting percentage will require greater and
innovative efforts. The ECI should think something differently as many of tools used in past may
not work so effectively in case of already identified left-over potential voters.
K R Prasad, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Janaagraha believes that legitimacy of Political Representation is a crucial determinant of the
quality of Indias democracy. Voter List in turn is the foundation on which voting and elections
rest. Janaagraha has worked extensively on Voter List Management in Cities over the past
decade, both on a pilot project on working with communities to improve quality of voter lists as
well as at a policy level with the Election Commission of India (ECI). Janaagraha has worked
under Memorandum of Understanding on Voter Lists with the Election Commission of India and
has produced the P.U.R.E (Proper Urban Electoral Lists) manual that provides a blueprint for
accurate voter lists in cities and towns.
Janaagraha identified following focus areas with respect to Strategies for Systematic Voters
Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP)

Voter List Management in cities and towns

Role of Corporates in voting and elections

Voter List Management

Voter List Management in Indias rural areas is an easier task but in cities and towns it requires a
significant overhaul. We believe that low voter turn-out in Indian cities is predominantly on
account of poor quality of voter lists and systemic flaws in voter list management, rather than
just voter apathy. Our recommendations below address specific issues in voter list management
based on our field experience and engagement with the ECI over the last decade, which in turn
would lead to more meaningful voter participation:

Ascertain Quality of Voter Lists at least at an annual frequency

There is currently neither any guarantee of accuracy nor any objective data on quality of
voter lists. The ECI needs to undertake robust, objective assessments of quality of voter
lists at least on an annual frequency. Only such an exercise can establish whether voter
lists are accurate or not, and if not to what extent. Three kinds of errors are possible in
voter lists, namely:

Error of Commission or potential deletion where a voter has died or shifted, but
name remains undeleted;
Error of Omission or potential addition where a voters name does not appear on
the voter list in the area of residence and;
Errors in voter detail comprising age, gender, address, photo etc.

A well-designed and properly administered survey would capture all of the above and provide rich
insights. Further, such an exercise would also help target SVEEP appropriately.

Update voter lists on continuous basis

Currently, voter lists in cities are updated on an annual basis generally during a 3 month
window from November to January. There are two issues here first the lack of flexibility
from a voter perspective and second lack of sufficient human resources to perform such
updation properly, from ECIs perspective. This is specifically because the updation
during this short window is carried out by employees of municipal corporations (mainly
tax inspectors) and school teachers at a compensation that approximates a paltry sum of
Rs 3,000 per annum. In several cases, identified employees do not perform their role in
voter list updation due to poor incentives, lack of clear accountability for this role,
disruption in their business-as-usual duties and irrational allocation of geographical areas
where they need to update lists. The current process of periodic updation needs to be
replaced with transparent and continuous updation of voter lists. This would also provide
voters greater flexibility to update voter lists whenever a change happens in their
details.

Perform a serious evaluation of human resources required for voter list

updation
In order to update voter lists continuously, especially in cities and towns, the ECI needs
at its disposal a fairly significant workforce. At the outset, a one-time exercise to estimate
such human resource requirement, taking into account population growth, migratory
patterns to cities, existing human resources and current quality of voter lists, and in
consultation with District Electoral Officers who are current in-charge, would be of
paramount importance. In addition to the one-time exercise referred to above, there are
three significant areas of reform and systemic change that need to be undertaken:

Engage communities and civil society in voter list updation

Our experience in select areas of Bangalore revealed a 10% change in voters
annually. This is fairly significant and the ECI is unlikely ever to have a sufficient
workforce to cope with such change. Further there is a large proportion of
neighbourhoods that are slums or semi-formal or informal settlements where density
of population is high, notation of addresses incorrect/incomplete/incomprehensible
and details of voters difficult to ascertain. Engagement of local communities and civil
society organizations would therefore be a practical way to enhance capacities of the
ECI and to tide over these real issues. This would need to happen through a
sustained campaign in neighbourhoods. Janaagrahas citizen volunteers called Area
Voter Mithras were instrumental in improving voter list quality to 80% in the
Shanthinagar Assembly Constituency in Bangalore.

Leverage technology much more effectively in Voter List Management

The ECI needs to undertake technology improvements to voter list management on a
mission-mode. Technology improvements need to encompass the below:

Use GIS to map polling part boundaries;

Create automated workflow from online voter registration to voter list
updation and make the entire process easier for citizens, so the process of
registration does not become cumbersome for citizens;
Adopt Open Data standards in respect of voter lists, ensure voter lists are
maintained, updated and disclosed in data formats that are best-in-class and
amenable to integration with other government databases (as against PDF
formats);
Use hand-held devices with online forms for voter list updation (backed by
hard copy submissions, voter attestations), integrated with GIS;

Initiate conversation between the ECI, State Governments, the Postal

Department and Municipal Corporations on streamlining of addresses,
naming and numbering conventions
Addresses in Indian cities including naming conventions of streets, numbering of
doors etc. in cities and towns are haphazard and obstacles to proper voter
verification and updation. There is multiplicity of agencies that handle this area and
are impacted by the same. All of these stakeholders need to engage on creating an
efficient and effective standard that can apply across cities and towns. This reform
agenda will have far-reaching positive implications across Union, State and City
governments.

Role of Corporates in Voting and Elections

We recognize the significant role that corporates can play in our elections, especially to improve
voter turnout. Janaagraha initiated a campaign to certify and recognize corporates that achieve
100% Voter Registration among their employees. Our recommendations in respect of Active
Corporate Citizenship as a theme are as follows:

100% Voter Registration and Voluntarily disclosure in the Annual Report inter
alia % voter registration among employees
It would be a good idea for Active Corporate Citizenship to emerge as a theme in itself,
that measures and recognizes the nature and extent to which corporates discharge their
responsibility of active citizenship. While voluntary disclosure of Active Citizenship in
Annual Reports could be a lofty goal, a beginning could be made by encouraging
voluntary disclosures of % voter registration among employees. This can be catalysed by
industry bodies such as FICCI. 100% Voter Registration of employees could be
undertaken as a separate campaign by the ECI in collaboration with industry bodies, civil
society organizations and corporates themselves, where targeted and closely monitored
voter registration drives at corporate campuses can aim for 100% voter registration.

Incentivize Active Corporate Citizenship beginning with % Voter Registration

Minor incentives need to be considered to acknowledge Active Corporate Citizenship,
again beginning with Voter Registration and voting itself. These could range from
mentions on ECI/Ministry of Corporate Affairs websites to a credits system where Active

Corporate Citizenship credits or scores or points become a visible and usable indicator in
public discourse and corporate governance.

Formally recognize Active Citizenship as an important attribute of an

employee through suitable policies, especially in respect of rewards and
recognition and employee benefits
Corporates need to embrace the credo Only an active citizen is a performing employee
i.e. however high performing an employee may be, he/she first needs to be an active
citizen. Corporates can take several measures to embed active citizenship of employees
in their culture and outlook. This could range from leaves on voting day for voting
employees to again, a credits system that can be redeemed for leave/cash etc. However
such measures, in addition to informal interventions, need to also be formal in the form
of policies.

Other suggestions as follows could also be considered:

Targetting marginalised groups:

Janaagraha's survey on quality of voter lists conducted in Delhi in December 2014,
showed that the categories of citizens least likely to register from their currest address of
residence include: Those in the age group of 18-25; those in lower socio-economic
classes (C,D,and E) and Muslims.

Tapping into other large databases:

ECI could utilise information captured in other large citizen databases like Aadhar card,
LPG gas connections, mobile phone service proviers, cable connection providers to
identify citizens who records need to be updated. ECI could further collaborate with
these agenies to function as collection points on its behalf, such that voters can
automatically update their voter records by furnishing the required documents to the gas
agency, phone company etc. Since in most cases the documentation requirements are
similar, the citizen can avoid duplication of effort.

Quality of Voter Lists:

The ECI should adopt open data standards and make the voter lists available publicly to
enable citizens and civil society to contribute to vet the lists and identify errors and
duplication. This would also help address questions on transparency and poor quality of
voter lists. Janaagraha's survey in Delhi showed that the category of voters whose
records need to be deleted because of relocation from current address most commonly
are those in the age groups of 26-36 and those living in lower middle class housing.

Shortage of Staff:
Currently, the ECI does not have adequate staff on its rolls to undertake voter
registration on the field. It functions with the help of the staff of Central and State
governments, who are deputed for this function as Booth Level Officers. This could
create issues related to responsibility since ECI does not exercise direct control over
them. Having full time staff engaged in preparation and maintenance of voter lists could
greatly enhance the quality of voter lists.

Common Voter Lists:

The Law Commission has recommended introduction of common rolls for Centre, State
and Local Body elections. This will results in considerable savings as it would avoid
duplication of effort and expenditure. This would also save citizens the hassel of vetting
their information across multiple lists.

Sanjeev Sharma, Chief Electoral Office, Jharkhand

I am happy to share my inputs based on my own experiences with the system in general and
learnings at Jharkhand in particular to help improve the SVEEP outcomes.
Suggestions for improving the outcomes of SVEEP activities

Dedicated Election Cadre

In the present structure, the DMs/DCs double-up as DEOs, supported by the SDMs and
ADMs. This is an unavoidable scenario. However, at the lower levels, it is proposed to
have a dedicated election cadre. The AEROs/BLOs are Government servants/teachers at
Government schools and colleges. This puts an extra load on them, being forced to
constantly juggle between classes/administrative duties at work and the requirements as
BLOs. Working in the off-hours, too, is not the ideal situation, as, the honorarium is too
meagre and takes time coming into their pockets. In addition, the extra work could affect
their efficiency, owing to which they wont be able to give their 100% to either of the
tasks regular teaching/admin/office work as well as the BLO duties. Hence, the vital
aspect of quality education is also adversely affected, if the BLO is a teacher. The
proposed dedicated Election Cadre could complement (not replace, at least immediately)
the existing BLO-based system.

This Election Cadre, along the lines of the existing income tax cadre (IRS) could be
recruited for and trained in all the aspects of the election process electors
registration, EVMs, VVPAT, SVEEP activities, etc.
It could comprise a mix of MBAs, general-stream graduates, and creatively-gifted
individuals for the following tasks, inter alia:

designing posters/banners/advertisements;
coining slogans/jingles/songs;
making short films;
scripting street plays (nukkad natak);
distributing voters slips and disseminating information on PSs;
training Government officials;
motivating electors, etc.

This cadre, 200-250 strong, could be deployed and shifted from State to State, as
and when the need arises, especially during General Elections;
Being directly answerable only to the ECI and with no additional baggage, the cadre
could be more focused, dedicated and impartial in its working. The impartiality stems
from the fact that the Election Cadre would not be having any vested/local interest
at the place of posting: hence, it can give in its 100% with minimum influence of the
local administration or leaders;
Even when there are no elections planned, the Election Cadre can be put to good
use by involving it in the Special Summary Revisions, wherein it could serve as an
extended arm of the District Administration in areas where the registration drives
usually dont deliver the desired results. Thus, it will augment the manpower
available for SVEEP campaigns and, consequently, add to the effectiveness of the
drives;
This Election Cadre could also be of help in the ongoing NERPAP. In addition, it can
also help streamline the year-long SVEEP Calendar proposed by the ECI fairly
recently, by visiting the constituencies where the CEOs/DEOs propose them to be

stationed for a while. Regular interactions with Campus Ambassadors could also form
part of their mandate.
In the present situation, the cadre could be planned and tried (on a Pilot Basis) for the upcoming
Bihar, West Bengal and Assam State General Elections.

Proper acclimatization and closer monitoring of observers

It has been observed that the SVEEP material banners/posters/jingles/videos/handbills,
etc. sent by the State CEO is either not used at all or not put to optimal use by the DEOs.
It wouldnt be an exaggeration to state that a lot of the material simply ends up as waste
material in no time. Towards this end, the observers deputed by ECI could play a more
important role. They may be sent earlier on to acclimatize themselves well with their
places of posting, by spending at least a fortnight to understand the pulse of the city/
village, etc. Having done this, they can understand better the important landmarks/major
roads/places of high footfalls, etc. in their area of deputation. Hence, they will be betterplaced to appreciate and comment with authority and facts on the efforts of the local
administration in choosing the sites for hoardings, banners, etc. this is for the reason
that the effectiveness and efficiency of SVEEP campaigns will be determined to a large
extent by the quality of the display.
Presently, it appears so the local administration is somewhat lax in addressing the SVEEP
material dissemination aspect and only goes about it a piecemeal-based approach,
through whatever sites are available at the 11 th hour. Needless to say, by this time, most
of the prime spots are booked with the political parties, robbing the administrations
campaign of a lot of its sheen and reach. This approach doesnt imbibe the true spirit of
the SVEEP drive, though it does fulfil the formal requirements of it. This is truly a
quantitative approach (number of banners/posters/hand-bills, etc. are the only
yardstick), rather than qualitative (effectiveness and/or efficiency of the campaign). The
Value-For-Money aspect is, to put it simply, totally amiss.
In the present scenario, the observers mostly rely on the data and information passed on
by the administration due to lack of their own understanding and insight. A proper
acclimatisation will enable the observers to be aware of this aspect and take pro-active
steps to ensure that the administration is seized of this issue and takes appropriate
timely steps in this direction.

Preference to observers well-versed with the location language, topography,

specifics, etc.
This is a corollary of the point just mentioned above. While selecting observers, those
with a prior understanding of the area based on their birth, studies, prior posting, etc.
could be given preference over those with no such background. This can ensure that
they are productive in the shortest time possible.

Better monitoring of SVEEP activities

Helpline Number 1950

Though the suggestion appears very elementary, the number 1950 needs to be
closely monitored in all the States. It is a common feeling my own too that the
number is either mostly out of order or there is no response at all on this number. It
becomes active and is monitored only during election time. Rest of the time it is
mostly defunct and inoperative, thereby defeating its very purpose.

The present system of manual recording of complaints on 1950, if any, needs to be

replaced with an electronic complaint system. This should be akin to the typical call
centres wherein the caller is given a complaint number for further processing and
future tracking, if required. The concerned officials (DEO/ERO/BLO, etc.) should be
automatically informed of the issue by e-mail and SMS along with a formal letter
from the CEO, detailing the concerns of the caller. The processes should be timebound and there should be auto-escalation of the complaint to the next level in the
hierarchy if the time-frames are not adhered to while solving a problem. Many States
dont seem to have a system of such nature.

Video clips of SVEEP material displayed

The various SVEEP material such as banners/posters/stickers, etc. put up at various
spots could be video-graphed. The videos/clips, etc. developed for SVEEP also need
to be displayed properly and the display video-graphed as well. This could help
address the dual concerns of quantitative as well as qualitative display of SVEEP
material, and timely action could be taken, if required. For this, proper formats can
be designed for reporting on the material dissemination, ensuring greater objectivity
and uniformity in reporting.

Campus Ambassadors
Campus Ambassadors form an important though largely unexplored and unexploited
link with the youth of India, constituting approx. 2/3rd of the population. To properly
inform and sensitise them of their responsibilities, they need to be engaged with
more often. It appears so that some are not yet well-aware of their responsibilities
and the significant impact they could make in nation-building through their
enthusiastic approach. The Election Cadre could also be utilized for regular
interactions with the Campus Ambassadors.
Incentives for Campus Ambassadors delivering good results also need to be devised.
This could include certificates/trophies/cash awards, etc. distributed through highranking officials at well-publicised functions. This could have a rub-off on other
Campus Ambassadors, motivating them to put in extra efforts as well. Needless to
say, the message of SVEEP will also be delivered far and wide(r).

Proper manpower planning at CEO office (for officers as well as regular staff)
The officers (Addl./Jt. CEOs) based at the CEO office need to be well-versed with all the
aspects of the electoral process. Towards this end, they should be based at the CEO
office for at least 7-8 months prior to start of elections and receive proper training at the
ECI/ IIIDEM. In addition, their posting should be exclusively for the CEO office, not as an
additional charge. With dual charge, they are not able to devote full attention to the CEO
office responsibilities and files get delayed and work suffers as a result.

E-voting
The ubiquitous internet could be used quite effectively for e-voting, though, addressing
an 80-crore plus electorate could be a challenging exercise. To being with, it could be
used for electors who are unable to be physically present in their Polling Stations for
legitimate reasons company work/tours/meetings, weddings, health reasons, etc. Such
electors could inform the concerned CEOs of their requirement of e-voting in advance
and arrangements can be made for their voting through the internet on the day of
polling.
In addition, a large section of the Indian diaspora is spread worldwide NRIs and PIOs
who would like to participate as voters. However, they are unable to do so for obvious

reasons (an expensive flight being one of them). After proper registration as NRI/PIO,
they could also be given the option of e-voting, furthering the democratic process.

Timely honorarium for BLOs

BLOs are probably the most important and the only regular human link between the
administration and the electors. It has been seen in some cases that the honorarium to
be paid to BLOs has been held up for a very long time. As it is, the amount to be paid is
rather nominal. If even that takes time, it robs the BLOs of their morale and makes the
work seem more like a burden. With timely redressal of such issues, the last mile
connectivity with electors could become much more effective and efficient.

Timely clearance of bills for vehicle owners

Administrations enlist the support of all vehicle-owners during elections, including private
fleet-owners. It has been observed that the payments to these companies/individuals
have been held up for a long time, at times as many as 5 years. Though it is well within
the rights of the DM/DC to call upon the services of all vehicle-owners, the responsibility
of timely payments is equally big, which could inculcate a spirit of cooperation between
the administration and the fleet-owners. In the lack of it, it indicates a spirit of coercion,
which goes against the very roots of a democratic set-up. Also, it makes vehicleacquisition somewhat more difficult.

Election Icons
The icons chosen for disseminating the SVEEP message and exhorting electors need to
be identified with care, lest they end up as a case of preaching without practice. For
instance, the national icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not vote in the Lok Sabha General
Elections as well as the Vidhan Sabha General Elections in Jharkhand. Similarly, the
national icon Aamir Khan did not vote in the Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
These are influential people who could have easily adjusted their itineraries to
accommodate the day of voting, but didnt do so.
It is suggested that celebrities with a strong social/national commitment only be involved
as icons. If this is done so, other than simple recording of messages, these icons could
be requested to go a step ahead by participating in select ECI/CEO events. In addition,
they can be influenced to sign/autograph select merchandise (caps, t-shirts, track suits,
etc.). These items can then be offered as awards at contests organized by CEOs and ECI.
This will be akin to the way the celebrities are present as brand ambassadors at brand
launches/company functions or where they distribute their autographed wares to winners
of various promotional contests organized by their principals/sponsors. This step could
significantly enhance participation by the general public and also ensure a wider media
coverage, thereby grabbing more eyeballs and propagating the SVEEP message amongst
a larger audience.

New-age Connections
The Lok Sabha General Election 2014 was abuzz with one particular aspect the
significant resources (time and team) allocated by BJP to the social media, especially
Facebook (FB). As per media reports, a dedicated FB team was working in overdrive and
connecting with the masses, especially the youth, using FB (considering that youth are
the biggest users of FB). Going by the election results, the strategy seems to have
worked. There is no reason why the ECI/CEOs cant replicate the same, using innovative
approaches and discussing on topical issues to appeal to and connect with the electors.
SMS is another powerful source of contact. In Jharkhand, SMSes were sent in bulk to
electors whose mobile details were in the database. Some of them rang back and

enquired of the source and rationale of the SMS. This highlights the connect that SMS
can derive with the electors during elections. With the NERPAP trying to incorporate the
mobile and e-mail data in a big way, it is time to fully exploit the potential offered by
these new-age communication tools. Apart from SMS, voice mails can also be massblasted by a tie-up with the telecom operators.

Electronic Form Submission Only

The starting point of errors is the manual submission of Forms (6, 7, and 8). The electors
submit data in a hand-filled Form, which is later typed in by an operator (usually in a
casual manner, as the large number of errors show). To correct the errors, another Form
is submitted later (again hand-filled) and, because of the continued casual approach,
errors continue, albeit some different ones.
It is suggested that AADHAAR-like registration process be employed for EPIC as well.
This means that the hand-filled Forms are fed-in (digitalized) right in the presence of the
electors as soon as they submit the Forms. The registrants can immediately check the
veracity of the data-entry and ask for corrections, if any. Thus, the potential registrants
will leave the office of the DEO/SDO, etc. only after satisfying themselves that their data
has been correctly entered in the Computer. Once correct data has been entered, there
will be only simple copy/paste or import/export operations to be done. Needless to say,
the potential for errors through these operations is minimal, if any. This will avoid a lot of
the errors that are discovered at a later stage, in the present system.

Lively LED Van Shows

When companies launch a new product or service (vehicle/FMCG/investment or loan
plan, etc.) they hire vehicles with VJs and prominently display the salient features and
advantages of their product/service. The VJs go about in an energetic manner and
generate excitement and enthusiasm around the company/brand, etc. In addition to this,
spot-quizzes are conducted wherein the onlookers are asked random questions and given
a small prize on-the-spot by the VJs. This generates an effusive and a festive mood,
helping the company/brand to generate a certain loyalty/brand recall. A similar approach
can be tried out with election vans, with a professionally-based and lively approach
rather than the typical dull-n-drab and easily predictable methodology adopted at
present.

MD. Noor Alam, Multiple Action Research Group (MARG), New Delhi
Following are my inputs towards Strategies for Systematic Voters Education and Electoral
Participation (SVEEP) to increase participation of women, marginalized and minority
community:
Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted
Apart from targeting women, youths, migrant population, labourers, transgender/eunuch/sex
workers/ HIV positives communities, religious minorities and especially Muslims, Dalits and
Tribals requires more attention. Tenants and landlords of rented house/premises also needs to be
targeted. As in most of the cases tenants are discouraged by landlords to get their names
registered in voter list.
Strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new strategies to reach
out to the groups that have been left out to enhance enrolment and participation in
elections

Spreading awareness about merits of voting;

Promoting/sharing success stories;
Lesser barriers/hurdles in getting enrolled in voter list;
Supportive bureaucratic structure, especially training/appointments of officials at
BLO/returning officer level;
Easy access of polling station;
Easy method/process in change of address, locality wise, assembly wise, or state wise
introduction of Smartcard may be one solution. It can have biometric information linked
with Aadhar or any other mechanism but EPIC need not to mention address. Whenever a
person change address, he or she should inform election commission only through
registered telephone/mobile, electronically/website, or individually, whichever is
convenient, which can be verified by BLOs through Electoral Roll, in this way every time
need not to replace/reissue EPIC;
Tenants and landlords of rented house/premises also needs to be covered;
Celebrate a national voters day/ Election day/ Election Week/ Voters rights Week
annually;
Organise voter enrolment camps in areas mostly inhabited by migrant population,
labourers, transgender/eunuch/sex workers/ HIV positive communities, religious
minorities and especially Muslims, Dalits and tribals, hill tracts and remote locations;
Start incentives/ awards/ promotional initiative for friendly BLOs and officials who
facilitate better Voter enrolment in targeted communities.

Ways to reach out to relevant CSOs , opinion leaders, educational institutions,

youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups to
strengthen voter awareness and participation

Increased partnership;
Role allocation of such institutions, as per outreach of CSOs, NGOs, Schools/ colleges etc
in targeted communities;
Whenever Election commission celebrate national voters day/ Election day/ Election
Week/ Voters rights week, participation of such formal and informal groups can sought;
Invite maximum inputs from such group which are relevant for increased voter
participation;
Celebration of democracy through voting can be in their focus of campaigns.

Effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of community

mobilization
Success Story of Sawda Ghevra - slum resettlement colony in Mundka Vidhan Sabha of Delhi,
where community women and men utilised their vote to get better civic amenities and
commitment for water-pipeline in the electioneering. In fact, this colony of more 16,000 voter
has become very instrumental to decide fate of any Municipal Corporators or MLA candidate.
Situation in Sawda Ghevra Slum resettlement colony has drastically improved by the use of
Voting rights. Women of the community has successfully used vote to highlight the water issue of
this locality. They have got first Water ATM machine in Delhi. They are getting water from Delhi
Jal Boards through GPS controlled water tankers and now the water-pipeline installation is in
process.
I hope my inputs would be useful for developing SVEEP. Looking forward for more opportunities.
Ranjan Mohanty, People Culture Trust (PECUC) and Odisha Election Watch,
Bhubaneshwar, Odisha

Our input on the query is as follows:

Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted:
Bhubaneswar has a literacy rate of 93 percent, but 42 percent of voters turned up for voting.
Tribal dominated Mayurbhanj district has literacy rate of 64 percent, however the voter turnout
was 82%, highest in the state. Bhubaneswar has about 100 thousand retired officers families
and serving officers families but a sizable portion of these voters did not turned up to vote.
Absenteeism on the day of voting was predominant among government employees city. Women
in the household of officers complained that there was no one to accompany us to the booth.
Many people complained they are unable to identify their booth. Bhubaneswar is headquarters of
innumerable NGOs and corporate houses who like to preach but most of their employees did not
turn up in polling booths because of sheer laziness and apathy. It is not urban indifference.
Cuttack, Rourkela, Berhampur did not exhibit such low turnout. However this is needed to be
studied in depth.
Further some more groups may need to be targeted including urban voters, those are
Government officials and specifically those who are teaching and other communities engaged in
polling process, migrant labourers, nomadic groups, young voters in educational institutions,
domestic workers, daily wage earners, older people/senior citizen, women voters etc. Voters who
have got enrolled in two places need to be mobilized for deletion of their name at one of the
places.
Strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new strategies to reach
out to the groups that have been left out:

Campaign involving Civil Society Organisations, Community Based Organizations like

Women Self-help-groups, Youth Clubs, NSS, NYK;
Special Gram Sabha in rural areas and area wise meeting/ward meetings in urban
setups;
Special campaigns in the campuses of Educational Institutions, big business houses & no
government organisations;
Greater women participation is a good strategic move for increasing overall turnout and
ensuring inclusive electoral participation;
Support voter education initiatives to ensure citizens understand their rights and role in
the electoral process and have information to make informed decisions at the ballot box;
Daily wage labourers, domestic workers should be paid for that day without work, No
Work but Full Day Wage should be granted by all private company, organization or
individual and appropriate action to be taken in this regards So private
/institutions/corporates need to be mobilized for this.
Increase of polling stations in outreach/ unreached areas, especially for those who are
residing in far-flung areas;
Dissemination of information on free, fair and transparent elections, voting rights and
electoral process through distribution of leaflets, pamphlets, wall-paintings, hoardings,
mobile van campaign, street plays, folk-media awareness which will empower these
groups and henceforth increase their participation in maximum numbers;
Media engagement at grass root level by spreading proper coverage of different political
parties, candidates and their propagandas will help people to choose good and right
candidate;
Officers on election duty should use postal ballot, be made compulsory at the time they
take materials for the polling booth;
Women at home in officers colony should form neighbourhood groups to go to the
polling booth together.

Ways to reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational institutions,

youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups :

Election Commission can undertake a mapping exercise directly and / or through offices
of Chief Electoral Officers in different states to identify the groups;
Election Commission can take support of National Election Watch and Election Watch at
State level to reach out to the desired groups for the purpose. Other Civil Society groups
also may be involved in the process;
NSS, NYK can be involved in the process too.

Effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of community

mobilization that can be adopted :
Everybody must be told emphatically that by not going to vote you are consenting to the
win of the candidate whom you probably do not like as your representative and you have
lost your right to complain against corruption in administration;
Organising Special Palli Sabhas/ Gram-sabhas in rural areas and ward level meetings in
urban areas involving all voters of the concern area and discuss the importance of voting
and motivating them for hundred percent enrolment / deletion of dual entry and voting;
My Vote My Country (Mo Vote Mo desha/ Mera Vote Mera Desh) Campaign is an effective
campaign by National Election Watch and State Election watches to promote increase in
voting and more specifically ethical voting The slogan was My Vote My Country and My
Vote Not for Sale;
There is a need of coming out with a proper communication strategy and appropriate
slogans for the campaign which can touch the hearts of the people;
CEO, Odishas effort to mobilize young voters by conducting quiz competitions at colleges
in district and state level involving NSS for students mobilization proved to be extremely
successful.
Support extended by Odisha Election Watch in developing question bank and conducting
quiz competitions at different forums at district and state level are good example to
increase youth participation;
Mainstream media is yet to reach millions of people in our country. Study shows that
even now Panchayat office and Haats (weekly markets in rural areas) are the main
source of information for majority of the people. Hence along with the mainstream
media, the use of these indigenous platforms for information disseminate will have to be
worked out;
Strategy needs to be developed to educate children and to develop citizenry amongst
them, as they are the future voters. This can be done through Schools (for example School Cabinet in Odisha) and Children Associations/ Child Rights Clubs promoted by
various Civil Society Organisations like Sisu Sabha promoted by PECUC, Odisha/ Bal Sena
by Shaishav, Bhavnagar, Gujurat etc. and many such others.
Siddhartha Kumar, Ottawa, Canada
I am part of a 'civic engagement table' here in Ottawa, Canada, which is focused on 'Making
Votes count' http://www.makingvotescount.ca/#!about/c4nz. Briefly, the group comprises of
organizations and residents (with emphasis on representation from the communities identified
such as new immigrant, people with disability etc) which meets regularly to discuss relevant
issues and how best to propagate to residents through 'cafe' and rallying like organizations; as
well as educating public representatives. Members also, write in the media to highlight issues.
Please refer to the link for more details. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/letter-makeottawa-more-welcoming-for-immigrants.

While, this initiative is unique to Ottawa, one thing it has achieved (expected to achieve) is
making voters realize that their vote matters and that they are as important as anybody else as
an electorate. Please check the website for detail activities etc.
Swapan K Biswas, PG Dept. of Pol/Science, J N Govt. College , Port Blair, Andaman
I am forwarding my little experiences as a faculty of J N Govt. College, teaching Political Science.
The present topic is highly relevant to aware our millions of voters, who are not serious about
their role in democracy. Our educational institutions can play an important role to educate our
youth, who are getting education for jobs. At first we need to protect our democracy and make it
healthy by allowing very good representatives in every elected institution.
India is the largest democratic country in the world. Near about 75- 80 crores are eligible voters.
The constitution has given fundamental right to every voter to participate in elections and to
exercise their franchise freely and fairly. However, in all the previous Lok Sabha elections only
55- 65 percent voters exercised their fundamental rights at the time of elections. Under such
circumstances, the election commission has taken a good step to enrol new voters and to aware
all voters to exercise their democratic right and cast their opinion in ballot box and to elect a
strong government at all levels. However the experiences is not good so far.
I would like to share the experiences of our parliamentary constituency Andaman and Nicobar
islands and local body elections. Local administration gave the responsibility of enrolling all the
first year students who have not yet enrolled in the voter list to our college. Faculties prepared
Nukar Natak by involving students and staging it at college campus and various other public
places to educate the general public and students. We are proud to say that our tribal district
Nicobar has always shown record voter turnout in all previous elections. In Car Nicobar Tashil
and Nancowry Tahsil, the voters turnout was 82.65 percent and 79.50 percent in 2014 Lok Sabha
elections respectively. Similarly, Diglipur- which is a rural Tahsil, recorded 79.48 percent voting,
while the same in Port Blair was only 62.22 percent. In the 2010 Municipal elections also some of
the urban wards recorded poor voting, this shows the apathy of the urban voters towards
election. I think, we need to aware our city voters of the importance of their voting rights to
strength our democratic process.
Ravindranathan M.K., Kerala
It is true that there are groups that have been left out on account of lack of awareness especially
the marginalized ones. But the negative attitude of the literate and the middle class and
important one like those of the marginalized need a study. The aversion of this class has led to
the weakening of our democracy. This resulted in failure to give good governance needed for
the formation of a welfare state, as promised by our constitution. The introduction of NOTA to
some scale will improve their participation in the electoral process but for their involvement we
need to think about some other strategies.
N. Ramakrishnan, Ideosync Media Combine, Faridabad, Haryana
Ideosync is a communication for social change organization based in the NCR of Delhi. Over the
past 18 years, Ideosync has worked across India, South Asia and South East Asia to develop
strategic communication plans for development initiatives; conducted communication related
research for formative and impact studies, with an emphasis on participatory and ethnographic
research processes; development communication and media tools (print, video, audio and
multimedia); and worked on communication related capacity building initiatives at community
level (to empower communities with media and media technology skills) and at CSO and donor

agency level (to demystify and streamline the process of evolving and operationalizing C4D and
C4SC initiatives within programmatic initiatives.)
Between 2012 and 2013, Ideosync worked with UN Women to evolve a communication strategy
(as well as a basket of related communication tools) for the Promoting Women's Political
Leadership and Governance in India and South Asia programme. As the programme was
implemented across 6 states, and we conducted a detailed formative study to inform the
strategy, it gave us the opportunity to examine many of the grassroots issues regarding electoral
participation, women's participation in political process (as voters and as well as
candidates/elected officials), and the understanding of participatory representative democracy.
Since 2014, Ideosync is also working with the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) on a pan-Indian
initiative to build understanding of democracy, rights, RTI and active citizenship in partnership
with community radio stations across the country. This initiative has provided further insights into
grassroots perspectives on participation in voting processes; the information and skill gaps in
understanding the process of voting and election of representatives; and, most importantly,
personal ownership of the democratic process (or lack thereof) - especially since the initiative is
designed to generate audio (radio) content on a number of these issues, for broadcast to
community audiences.
The following comments are therefore guided by our larger understanding of communication for
behaviour change (BCC), especially as derived from working with extremely marginalized groups
like migrants; as well as the insights from our observations during the two initiatives named
above:

We submit that it may be premature to speculate on who is being left out of the
election/voting process and how we can better involve them in the absence of a
sufficiently detailed formative study that specifically examines who is being left out, and
WHY they are not participating or not accessing the electoral process. In our view, this is
key to understanding the issue, and to focus on the specific steps that we will need to
take to involve such individuals/groups/communities, rather than dilute our efforts by
addressing a broader general audience. I understand that there have been some survey
(quantitative) studies that have gathered some of this information - but we suggest that
this be supplemented by a qualitative study that examines the cause of the lack of
participation in some depth. Only then will be able to determine the actions that SVEEP
will have to take. This formative study would ideally result in the development of a clearcut and detailed communication strategy that would present a holistic view of the
communication priorities for the ECI, including stratification of the audiences by KAP
(knowledge/attitude/practice) needs, as well as by audience/message;

Having been involved with community radio for an extended period of time - and having
worked directly with many of the 200 odd CR stations distributed across the country, not
to mention many others across South Asia - it is our observation that many of the issues
around active citizenship, voter participation, and the structure and significance of
representative democracy are best articulated in dialects and local languages. All too
often, official outreach on these issues tends to be very formally worded, and
inaccessible. It may be worth considering whether an engagement with local media
outlets - especially community radio - with a view to building their capacity to understand
and interpret these issues in their own contexts and local languages may have a more
lasting impact;

As an extension of this thought, a specific area to be addressed by SVEEP is the lack of

engagement evinced by many individuals across states, ethnicities and religions: 'Why

should I vote? My single vote won't change anything' is a refrain common from Jammu
to Kanyakumari, and betrays a total disengagement from the idea that every vote
counts, and that support for an idea or an individual is built by other individuals, not en
bloc. We submit that this attitude stems primarily from a lack of understanding of the
structure of democracy and voting processes, and a lack of skills in terms of vetting and
selecting an appropriate candidate to support. (An experiment with a well know CR
station during local elections, where the station attempted to introduce the standing
candidates for various constituencies in the area, as well as the issues and where the
candidates stood on them created a storm of enthusiastic response from listeners who
had never realized that they could access information like this anywhere. Similar
experiences introducing Association for Democratic Reform's myneta.info service to CR
stations suggests that addressing this core absence of information could contribute to
higher voter turnout in a big way);

We note also that there are signs that participation in voting as a sign of pride in
citizenship has the ability to go viral on social media. (Witness the storm of 'inked' selfies
on social media during the national elections 2014 - see media coverage here and here.)
The ECI could easily step up its social media presence on Twitter, Facebook and other
social media sites in order to generate such activities, as well as share voter success
stories in order to inspire others to participate. This is especially important in terms of
young people being one of the key demographics for SVEEP to address, as a
considerable proportion of social media activity lies in the sub-25 year category;

Finally, it is especially important to note that migrants and socially displaced individuals
are one of the key constituencies excluded not only by social process but by electoral
processes as well. Migrants tend to have identity papers - if at all - for their place of
origin, but are often left outside the electoral process at their destination sites. Not
having local address proofs means they are unable to modify their voter IDs, and hence
ineligible to vote there. Creating processes that will facilitate their inclusion at their
destination sites, as well as creating information processes to publicize this fact would
mean the inclusion of several million individuals within the voting process.

Just a few initial reactions and musings. Happy to examine this issue further with ECI.
Saket Ambarkhane, United Nations Volunteer (UNV) , New Delhi
Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted
While SVEEP III strategies aim at comprehensive inclusion all possible marginalized groups with
special focus on inclusion of people with disabilities, transgenders overseas Indians and migrants,
a lot of other groups also need to be addressed. A dedicated SVEEP campaign to enrol homeless
or pavement dwellers, hospital inmates etc. also needs to be looked at. If an individual can vouch
that a person has been living as a pavement dweller for a considerable period, as per a circular
(No.23/2010-ERS-II/168-202) issued by Election Commission of India dated 7th June 2011, a
booth level officer is empowered to enrol such a person after ascertaining that he/she sleeps on
the same pavement as mentioned in the Form 6.
Strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new strategies to reach
out to the groups that have been left out
I think the strategies identified by the Election Commission of India in its SVEEP III initiative are
comprehensive. A multi-pronged strategy to deal with broad based inclusion is being discussed.
It includes:

Creation of a database of people in various marginalized groups like people with

disabilities, transgenders, overseas voters and migrants etc. using BLOs, DEOs and
existing ECI infrastructure in States and UTs, concerned department in the social justice
and empowerment ministry and their network, NGOs and CSOs working for the
marginalized groups etc;
Once the numbers are available, a targeted and focussed intervention plan depending
upon the requirement in each assembly constituency or even at the polling station level
can be prepared. This could include providing transportation like home to polling station
or wheelchair or other such facilities;
Developing SVEEP materials for each of the marginalized groups to encourage them to
vote like pamphlets and brochures in sign language and braille etc. Pamphlets on how to
vote for overseas Indians and defence personnel will also help;
On poll day, sending SMSs encouraging all voters to participate in voting providing details
of their polling station including information on the facilities available at polling station for
elderly and disabled voters along with GPS location of the polling stations.

Ways to reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational institutions,

youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups
Election Commission has always shown interest in reaching out to CSOs, educational institutions
youth/student volunteer networks. CEOs regularly involve NSS and NYKS volunteers and other
volunteers from educational institutions during elections to encourage youth to vote as well as to
provide help at voter facilitation centres at polling stations and for helping elderly or disabled
voters. Election Commission has also signed MoUs with NLMA and other such organizations to get
database on migrant labourers. However, direct engagement with CSOs is mostly avoided due to
possible affiliation with political parties. Hence, tie-ups with government organizations which
work in these fields are the best sources of getting the number of people in various marginalized
sections and getting support for encouraging them for electoral participation. For encouraging
youth to vote during elections, campus ambassador programme already exists and expanding it
to all colleges could lead to a better electoral participation from youth.
Effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of community
mobilization
I think that the best grassroots level measure of community mobilization for electoral
participation is instilling pride among people for voting. SVEEP measures carrying the message
that voting is a fundamental duty that all citizens must fulfil and encouraging ethical voting by
choosing the right person will ensure better governance should be adopted.
Suresh Goduka, Chief Electoral Office, Assam
My inputs on strategies for Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) are as
follows:
Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted and the strategies to
reach out to the focus groups and to the left out groups to enhance enrolment and
participation in elections:

Campaigns are generally carried out door to door, hence people with no doors are the
ones left out. Homeless, beggars, rag pickers etc. also those remaining physically cut-off
from the mainstream due to various reasons need to be targeted;
Special attention need be provided for differently able people and their families;

There are civil society organizations specifically working amongst the above groups. They
should be associated with the cause;
We may also identify voters in each constituency as having participated hardly or not
at all in the latest electoral cycle, say in last three Assembly or Lok Sabha elections. They
may be targeted for motivating to vote;
A team of Democracy Volunteers can be formed in each State for such reach out
programmes for total mainstreaming of left out voters.

Ways to reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational institutions,

youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups:

There should be an open call to the organizations/ institutions/ groups/ opinion leaders
to join specific tasks for targeted interventions in strengthening voter awareness and
participation;
An annual Opinion Leaders Summit may be organized at the state level, for
discourses on their opinions and the strategic objectives of SVEEP, design and
implementation of electoral education campaign. This will also explore the level of
awareness, interest, knowledge, perception and anticipated participation.

Effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of community

mobilization:

The popular Folk Festivals of the communities with predictably large crowd can be
utilized. The main artist is the chief attraction and normally she or he makes certain
public awareness comments on cleanliness, discipline, development etc. The festival
committees may be officially written to include the voter awareness and participation
messages for on-stage endorsing and appealing to the public as per local convenience;
Also, a folk troupe may be engaged to enact a 5-7 minutes play or choreographic
performance with voter awareness messages on the folk festival stages;
Mobile theatres in the States like Assam are very popular community mobilization
examples. These theatres start with a curtain raiser nritya natika (dance drama) which
generally highlights a social issue like superstition, AIDS etc. Voter education may be
integrated with this. These theatres run for eight months a year and are hugely popular
especially among the rural people.

OTHER INPUTS:

Regarding material development and dissemination, the task of producing,

translating, dubbing content (audio, video, comic strips, posters etc.) should be carried
out at the State level and not at the district level, except for folk media, for the following
reasons:

This will save money, maintain quality and uniformity of messages;

Not all districts have facilities of dubbing studio etc;
The districts may reproduce and disseminate.

Hoarding locations should be preferentially strategized and not randomly chosen. City
centres, highway points, campus areas, rural markets should be preferred;
Brand ambassadors should not just be ornamental; they may be integrated with onfield programmes/ promotions. They should spread voter education messages in their
public appearances and speeches. The ambassadors should be renewed on regular
frequency;

Proper activation of 1950 Helpline is a must. Response should be confirmed. May be

outsourced to a call centre enterprise;
Democracy clubs can be formed in each college like Eco clubs/ Science clubs etc. and
all students should be compulsorily made members. A young assistant professor should
be made Coordinator. The Campus Ambassador idea is not working properly. These clubs
will hold speech, debate, quiz, poster contests, exhibitions etc;
LCD projectors (nowadays available in almost all colleges) may be used to show a video
reel explaining all details of voting process;
Nation Voters Day celebration should not just be a sarkari formality with babus as
guests as well as hosts. This day can be integrated with the school calendars for a 45minute classroom element. School level intervention will be effective for lifetime;
All India contests of poster and essay should be organized annually for age 16-19
students on voter education. District level selection leading to state level and finally
national level with attractive scholarship or cash prizes;
A voter manual on registration, correction, documents, voting, EVM, dos & donts etc.
need be prepared in simple, practical, graphical style that the public can relate to (like
how to use a refrigerator manuals) in all languages and disseminated via BLOs to each
household;
Newspapers are fed with advertisements only. There should be a democracy feature
panel for writing periodic articles/ features in line with voter education materials in
various languages and the same be sent for publication in popular dailies like any other
feature syndicate;
Interactive phone-in programme should be aired on All India Radio where a
designated election officer will answer all voter queries, at least once a month. RJ shows
on similar lines could be arranged on FM radio stations;
Getting a popular TV talk show host to invite senior election officers and citizen groups
to discuss will be effective;
All states should have a mandatory interactive social media page, say in Facebook. A
dedicated Social media team should be in place, backed by the democracy clubs,
who will promote the cause of voter education online. Targeted age-specific Internet
banner advertisements are also required regularly;
Messages of voter education may be embedded with popular TV serials, tailored to
their story/ screenplays. The concerned heads of the channels and/or the producers of
the popular serials may be contacted for this;
There should be not only reporting, but also critical review of SVEEP activities
quarterly at district, state and national level;
While preparing for partnerships, specific purposes may be clearly indicated one by
one. A sample table prepared for the purpose can be accessed here
Official letters should be sent to the prospective agencies requesting cooperation. A
sample letter is given here.

Aparna Lall, Association for Democratic Reforms, New Delhi

First of all, we want to congratulate Election Commission of India (ECI) for doing such a great
work and will be happy to assist the Commission in its voter awareness activities in whatever way
possible.
With regards to the four specific queries mentioned in the mail, please find below our
suggestions:
Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted:

Internally
Displaced
Persons/Migrants/Defence
and
Paramilitary
Personnel: There is a huge number of displaced people who cannot go to their own
constituency for voting and the existing options like postal ballot are not enough. There
is a need for some kind of centralised voting system which will allow the voters to vote
for the candidate from their own constituency from anywhere in the country and in case
of NRIs from anywhere in the world;
Third Gender/Economically and Socially Weak Classes/Old Age people: Though
various initiatives have been taken to bring them to the polling booths but these steps
are not enough. There is a need to start specific campaigns for them on a large scale;
Suppressed Women, especially in states like Haryana and Rajasthan: The areas
where women are not empowered enough to take their own decision need a specific and
targeted campaign. It is also necessary to educate and counsel the male members of
their family on a regular basis;
Youth in rural areas: Rural youths also need to be encouraged to take interest in
elections and vote for right candidates.

Strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new strategies to reach
out to the groups that have been left out:
Introduce online voting;
Whatsapp and other Internet-based messengers could be used to provide voter
awareness messages, pictures and videos;
Social Media Campaigns including Q and A, surveys etc. and should be active throughout
the year and not just during the election time;
Target youth even before they are eligible. Include Voter Awareness subject in the school
curriculum and provide their Voter Registration Card with the Board Certificate;
Like many other Western countries, a culture of open debate among candidates should
be started with the help of local or national media. This will create good hype around the
elections and increase people's interest in polls;
ECI should also make it mandatory for political parties to announce their manifestos in
advance, so that people can discuss about it and these discussions will encourage them
to do informed voting.
Ways to reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational institutions,
youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups:
Continued interaction with CSOs, institutions and volunteer networks, working towards
electoral reforms, throughout the year will be a big step to engage them in voter
awareness activities;
Most of such organizations keep working in their individual capacity, thus long-term
collaborations with them will be very effective;
As most of these CSO run on a very tight budget, sponsoring their voter awareness
activities will also encourage them to involve in more such activities.
Besides creating its own infographics, ECI can also make use of their partners' creatives
and other audio/video materials for voter awareness;
Voter awareness/registration etc. app development competitions;
ECI can create CSO groups in identified areas and work through them for providing
information to voters.
Effective grassroots level good practices/innovative measures of community
mobilization:
Local folk artists can be engaged to create songs and videos to encourage voting among
the community;
Organize theme fairs/events regularly;
Community radio stations to discuss local issues and encourage voters;

Organising bhaitaks with candidates, community leaders, panchayats etc. for awareness;
Voter awareness pamphlets and posters with minimum use of words and more pictures
in local dialects;
Create videos with local people discussing their issues and displaying those videos
regularly;
SMS and Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD ) campaigns to
provide candidate information as well as encouragement for ethical voting;
Inform voters about NOTA.

Aafreen Siddiqui, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra

A dedicated holistic strategy followed by the Election Commission of India under Systematic Voter
Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign has indeed helped the nation register its
all-time highest voters' turnout i.e. 66.4% in General Elections to the House of People-2014. In
an effort to reach higher on the turnout peak and healthier electoral rolls, the Commission's
effort to invite inputs/suggestions from all the sections of the society for devising strategies for
SVEEP III is commendable.
A multi-pronged strategy must be adopted with efforts to achieve results even better than SVEEP
I and SVEEP II. Now, that the District Election machinery has ensured the quantitative output of
SVEEP and NERPAP activities by updating statistical information on the Commission's Dashboard
for DEOs/EROs, it's time to focus more on the qualitative output of the Commission's efforts to
purify the rolls, increase voters' turnout and ensure ethical voting in the upcoming elections in
India. Based on my collective experiences of handling voters' awareness during local government
elections for the State Election Commission, Maharashtra and handling SVEEP at the CEO Office,
Maharashtra as a Technical Expert, I have devised a compact strategy for optimum utilization of
all possible resources to make SVEEP III, a yet another successful programme of the Election
Commission of India.
Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted
While reasonably effective steps have been taken by ECI to focus on the youth voters with the
unique 'Campus Ambassadors' concept, there is a lack of a detailed strategy to target the
following voters' groups:
Women
Service Voters/ On Duty Election Staff
Transgender
NRIs
The differently abled
Migrant workers
Corporate Employees
Tribal Voters
Senior Citizens
Strategies To Reach Out To The Above Focus Groups
Innovative strategies may be adopted to implement the SVEEP III calendar (which is now themebased) in all the states. A sample copy of the calendar from Maharashtra State is enclosed here.
Group-wise strategies (besides Social Networking and all other strategies already listed during
the discussion on Solution Exchange under this topic, I am putting forward some more
strategies) are listed as under:

For Women:
Official associations/tie-ups/Government resolutions (GRs/GOs) with the Rural
Development/Skill Development/ Women & Child Development/ State Women's
Commission/ Health Department of the States may be done to formally loop in the SHGs/
Anganwadi sevikas/ASHA workers in playing significant roles in implementation of SVEEP
activities;
Many women at the grassroots level in today's progressive environment wait for an
opportunity to be associated with meaningful social causes. Choosing such women with
good leadership and networking skills as 'SVEEP SAKHI' at cluster level to coordinate and
assist the field level election machinery in implementation of SVEEP activities would be of
great help to the DEOs;
A short module/documentary which includes all aspects of voters' awareness
(NERPAP/SVEEP for Electoral registration, Ethical Voting, NOTA etc.) may be prepared
and made as a time-bound mandatory syllabus to be included in Capacity Building
Training Modules of Elected Women Representatives (under RGSY/RGPSA and other
projects of Ministry of Panchayati Raj), Micro-planning- Participatory Village Planning for
all villagers, Special Women Gram Sabha (eg. Mahila Sabha in Maharashtra);
Utilizing the gatherings/ events/ meetings of the State Women's Commission,
District/Block Women's meets (Mahila Melawa in Maharashtra).
For Transgender Voters:
A strong network of NGOs/CSOs dealing with Transgender Rights is required for a large
scale transgender voter registration. Lakshmi Tripathi, a renowned transgender activist,
also, the Chairman of Astitva Trust, Mumbai, has expressed her keen interest to
associate with UNDP/ Election Commission of India in conducting SVEEP activities for
Transgender community across the nation with the help of UNAIDS. Such activists may
be appropriately looped in strengthening the strategies for transgender voters.
For NRIs:
MoU/ Agreement with Ministry of External Affairs to allow additional counters (time
bound) and display ECI Publicity materials at all the Consulates so that while going in for
VISA formalities, the NRIs are able to get enough exposure of information regarding
voters' awareness;
Special pop-up messages/ flash advertisements may be displayed on website of MEA/
PIO/ travel websites like Yatra, makemytrip, thomascook etc;
A special counter may be started at the airport in post-check-in area (wherein the flyers
have at least 30 minutes leisure time waiting for the boarding gates to open). If the
question of manpower/ infrastructure arises, it could even be managed by any NGO/CSO
willing to take up the responsibility voluntarily or may be financially supported by
companies under Corporate Social Responsibility;
Awareness Clips may be played on the LED screens of all the airports, while small
awareness stickers could be pasted and issued with the boarding pass;
Utilizing events on the days like Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, Independence Day/Republic Day
etc in India and across the globe may be considered;
Camps could be organized in large companies in the gulf (and other such countries) with
large number of Indian professionals/ workers.
For the Differently Abled Voters:
MoUs/Guidelines could be worked out between ECI and IMA (Indian Medical
Association)/ IAP (Indian Association of Physiotherapists) to give a wider outreach
approach for the awareness of the differently abled voters. Physiotherapists visiting
patients at their residences can be looped in as coordinating partners and be linked to

the EROs. SVEEP/NERPAP activities for the differently abled voters may be thus
communicated to them. Government Hospitals Physiotherapists can be assigned election
duty to facilitate easy voting for the differently abled voters at each polling station;
Special Walkathons/ Radio Programmes/ Social networking platform competitions and
such other events could be organised for mass voters' awareness programme.

For Tribal Voters:

Besides spreading voters' awareness via cultural events and activities, the tribal voters
can also be tapped using the PESA Act (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas) of the
MoPR, Government of India. Each State has been assigned the task of drafting their state
specific PESA Acts, wherein the clauses of community mobilisation, Gram Sabha
mobilization, capacity building of the tribal communities can be inserted. A small
component of SVEEP at village level can be inserted and implemented with the help of
the dedicated Tribal Development Department establishment of the States, special
guidelines could be framed to inculcate SVEEP in the respective state activities;
Young and dynamic PMRDF (Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows) could also be
looped in for propagating SVEEP.
For Senior Citizens:
Sunday SVEEP Camps can be organized at the Naana-Naani parks of all districts;
Old Age Homes connected and coordinated by one/few retired senior citizens as nodal
focal point for senior citizen voters can also prove to be a good platform.
Ways In Which The Election Commission Can Reach Out Various Groups To
Strengthen Voters Awareness And Participation:
A common user-friendly SVEEP Portal (In the lines of the well-made NVSP and NVD Portal) may
be designed which may include the following interfaces:

Campus Ambassadors- ECI already has a database of all campus ambassadors in all
states. A small Campus Ambassador guideline e-book may be made wherein the
Ambassadors get to list out their achievements in the SVEEP activities. These
achievements may include the numbers of friends and family whose AADHAAR and EPIC
were linked due to their efforts (each one could tweet and the others could retweet and
confirm/ facebook likes/comments/video sharing etc.), number of friends, they managed
to get registered as voters, number of innovative voters awareness campaigns
undertaken by them physically or using social networking etc. A Whatsapp group of all
Campus Ambassadors at each district level can be worked out;

Good Practices and success stories of various NGOs/CSOs/SHGs etc. could be given
due credit/publicity on this portal to encourage other groups in undertaking SVEEP
activities voluntarily.

Effective Grassroots Level Good Practices/ Innovative Measures Of Community

Mobilization That Can Be Adopted By Election Commission:
To deal with Urban Apathy:
Smt. Indrani Malkani of the V Citizens Action Network (VCAN), Mumbai has done a
commendable job in dealing with Urban Apathy and making efforts to increase
participation of Cooperative Housing Societies (CHSs) by working through their Managing
Committees and ensuring implementation of Section 79A of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960, which mandates that Office Bearers provide all support to
the BLOs. Such NGOs may be empanelled at State/National level to deal with Urban

Apathy and bringing out the silent and plush pocket residents in big cities who have
always been found to be reluctant in voting resulting to poor voters turnout in urban
pockets.
Details
of
VCANs
electoral
initiatives
can
be
viewed
at
http://togethervcan.in/?cat=7
To encourage Youth Voters/ ethical Voting:
SAHI NISHAAN: A new team of young and dynamic media professionals under the
guidance of Shri. Aloke Thakore have prepared a unique web portal named SAHI
NISHAAN encompassing all the spheres of voters awareness especially the youth voters.
They have made sincere efforts in bringing together young voters by preparing the
following materials:

Sahi Nishaan Ambassadors guide distributed to campus ambassadors and other

students in Mumbai Metropolitan region to spread mass awareness about voting;
Android App of Sahi Nishaan
Sahi Nishaan Candidate Assessment sheet to promote ethical voting by giving marks
to the contesting candidates on the basis of various social performance parameters

We Empower- Mera Vote Mera Haq have undertaken various innovative college level
activities including debate competitions/ awarding students with small amount of mobile
recharges as incentives etc. They have also made optimum utilization of resources by
coordinating with NSS in Maharashtra for focussing on Youth Voters.

To encourage rural voters:

The Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department, Govt. of Maharashtra has given
commendable contribution in Voters Awareness programmes at the grassroots level.
Government Resolutions were passed by the department for Special Voters Awareness
Gram Sabhas to be conducted at village level during both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha
elections in Maharashtra. Mahila Sabhas too were encouraged to do the same on the
occasion of International Womens Day (2014) around the election period.
To encourage women voters:
The State Election Commission, Maharashtra had initiated a Capacity Building Training
Project called Krantijyoti for empowerment of elected women representatives in rural
Maharashtra. The Project is now being implemented across Maharashtra with indeed
innovative modules. Such modules could be used to sensitize elected women
representatives about SVEEP who could further spread the word amongst their fellow
women villagers. Details can be viewed at http://krantijyotimaharashtra.blogspot.in/
Shri. Bhim Raskar of the Resource and Support Centre for Development (RSCD) has
already given his contribution in the solution exchange. Such potential women networks
must be given effective role in catalysing target group activities for an enhanced
performance in voters turnout.
ADR India, being a national level CSO has already produced the documentary suggestions for
electoral reforms and voters awareness.
I wish ECI all the very best in finalizing the strategies and commit our sincere contributions in the
same as and when required.
Lissa Chazot, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS) located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat has been
partnering for Voter Education with the Election Commission of Gujarat and has participated in

the pilot program for SVEEP Gujarat Chapter. Founded in 1998, it is a unique, award winning
Public-Private Partnership Model with the Ahmedabad Municipal Authorities and educationalists
Dr. Pascal Chazot and Anju Musafir. MGIS is a democratic school where students practice selfgovernance by making their own rules and following them. When Shri. Anita Karwal, the Chief
Election Officer of Gujarat communicated the need for creating voter education in the state
ahead of the legislative elections and invited the school to create content for promoting voter
awareness in the state under the aegis of the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral
Participation (SVEEP) program, we saw it as a learning opportunity anchored in a real life
context. MGIS was the first school to participate in the SVEEP Program with the Election
Commission of Gujarat as a pilot project.
Since MGIS is a an educational institution, the strategies will address primarily the youth and
urban electors as focus group. Also the strategies will include hands-on projects that would
interest the youth and provide an educational framework for implementation primarily in schools
and colleges across India.

It is recommended that each school set up a School Council to initiate selfgovernance with participation in decision-making and responsibilities at the
whole school level. It should not be merely the creation of a School Council but the
actual powers of decision-making that children both young and adolescents have, that
will fulfil the objectives of a genuine experience and understanding of democratic
processes. If the real experience of democracy is to be felt by children in their adulthood,
then participatory processes must be introduced at the school level. The children from
primary to secondary years in varying degrees of increasing complexity must be involved
in voicing their opinions and feelings;
At the beginning of the academic year, each class frames rules for self-governance and
form Class Councils;
Constituting a working group comprising of officials from the ECI and educational
experts (practitioners and pedagogues from such schools) at the national level is also
recommended;
National Voters Day should be compulsorily celebrated in schools by first
explaining the Pledge and later taking the Pledge;
By introducing the model code of conduct in student body elections across
Schools and Colleges as well, in universities akin to that of the ECI the students
can be more informed about the actual election process. This model code of conduct can
be developed by the students themselves;
Each Higher Educational Institutions (including Higher Secondary Schools and Colleges,
ITIs, PTCs, etc) should also celebrate what we would like to call YOUNG VOTERS
FESTIVAL (YVF);
Campus registration of young voters at the time of admission should be made
mandatory;
Encourage dialogue about democracy through forums, seminars and conferences
addressed to the youth by the youth. Our MGIS Grade 11 student was part of the
group that co-founded the city level Ahmedabad Student Parliament (ASP) that
touched over 10 schools in the city and over 3000 youth. There is a need to create a
template so that more schools/cities across the country can organize Student Parliaments
akin to MUNs and invite participation from students from different schools and cities to
debate about issues that matter to the country;
Organize TEDx Events in different cities dedicated to SVEEP to highlight its
activities with student leaders sharing their experience and their ideas to promote
electoral participation;

Encourage teachers to prepare and share lesson plans to help educators across
the country to bring the lessons of democracy to their classroom and make the subject of
Civics come alive;
Use Social Media and its tools must be used to create awareness about the electoral
rights and duties of citizens. Memes, photo stories, GIF images, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram etc can be used to promote SVEEP through competitions;
A tie up with leading carriers of the country such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc. The deal
will enable completely free browsing of the official website;
Create QR Codes for important information, information will be accessible upon
scanning the QR Code;
Posters with information in braille for the visually impaired and blind community to
be able to access this information and do the needful. The RJs can create audio bites
that can be circulated in national audio magazines for the blind;
Create a doodle and tie with Google Inc. to publish the doodle for a day to promote
the SVEEP Campaign;
Have a newspaper campaign spread over one week to promote the message of the
SVEEP Campaign through individual stories of success and inspiration;
Do a Twitter campaign with the Brand Ambassadors;
Create a live chat option on the official website to help address doubts of people
logged on to the official website.

The detailed report having following sections on the Strategies for Systematic Voters Education
and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) by the founders, teachers and students of Mahatma Gandhi
International School, Ahmedabad can be viewed at http://solutionexchangeun.net.in/ftp/decn/resource/Strategies_for_ECI_query.pdf

Section A:Strategies to inculcate values of democracy and electoral practices in

educational institutions at pan-India level;
Section B: Strategies and Activities to promote SVEEP among the Youth and Urban
Electors (see the power point presentation here);
Section C: Strategies suggested by MGIS Students to Promote Electoral Awareness and
Participation.

Avdhash Kaushal, Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), Dehradun,

Uttarakhand
In order to further strengthen its voter education and electoral participation strategy, following
suggestions are made to the Election Commission of India :Groups that may have been left out and need to be targeted:

There are many groups that are still left out are homeless people which include ragpickers; people living under flyovers, bridges, railway platforms, daily wages labours,
overseas voters, migrant and nomadic groups like Van Gujjars, Maldharis and tribal
communities, domestic helps, bonded labourers, people in Naxal Professionals, sex
workers etc;
Small villages which are not covered in maps and women who belong to orthodox
families;
The rural agricultural and industrial labourers;
Persons living in hostels and welfare homes;
People who are travelling long distance by trains or roads on the day of election;
Many college going students, who are away for their studies generally in other states and
cities which prevent them from going back to just cast a vote;

Under trials prisoners - Article 326 of the constitution only permits the disqualification of
the voter on the grounds of non residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt or
illegal practices. It would be a stretch to suggest that crime includes suspicion of a
crime and/or undergoing trial in respect of a crime. Therefore, the current practice of
keeping under trials with convicted prisoners and depriving them of their voting rights is
clearly incorrect. Excluding under trial for political participation and treating them as
secondary citizens negates the civic capacity and revoke the social status. In this way
they are identified further with their fellow convicted inmates;
People living in enclaves in Indo-Bangladesh borders- Enclaves or chit mahals are land
pieces of one country inside the others mainland in Indo-Bangladesh border area
adjoining to Cooch behar district in West Bengal. The peculiar and unique crisis, with its
historical origin in the 17th century has formed as per government record 111 Indian and
51 Bangladeshi chit mahals with a total of 17000 and 7000 acres off land area
respectively. Without any official identification these residents cannot vote. These people
living in the enclaves do not have their proper identity. In addition to this these people
also do not have voting rights;
16 of the 35 states and UTs reported higher female turnout than male voter
participation. These include Punjab, Goa, Odisha and Uttarakhand;

These sections have been and continue to remain a left out group and need to be targeted, in
order to establish a strong and stable democracy.
Strategies to reach out to the above focus groups and also new strategies to reach
out to the groups that have been left out

To overcome the gap in awareness of voters, information to voters should be

disseminated through all media, covering all aspects of election management and
answering questions related to what, when, where and how of the technical details of
these elections;
Special electronic election sensitive cards may be issued to the citizen so that, that card
may be used in the special electronic booths (e-booths) installed at different locations in
each cities and towns, such e-booths should also be installed at various railway stations,
inter-city bus terminals (just the way we have ATM debit cards that can be used
anywhere in the country in any ATM). This will help in enhancing the voting;
Arrangement for voting should be made for the people travelling anywhere in the
country, so that they are able to cast their votes on special computerized booths say ebooths. For such purposes unique identity cards such as Aadhar Cards be used. This
facility can further be promoted through e-voting, through sms and registration of
permanent phone numbers;
A provision should be made for mobile booths which move from area to area in cities in
order to cover the elderly people who cannot walk out of their home to cast their votes
and also to cover the differently-abled people;
Research analysis and evaluation of previous elections and taking steps to fill the gaps;
Exclusive Youth-specific campaign to be designed and rolled out for getting them
registered as voters, photo inclusion in electoral rolls, getting the EPIC and to exercise
their franchise on the date of poll;
Exclusive Women-specific campaigns to be designed and rolled out for their registration,
inclusion of photo in the roll, issue of EPIC to exercise their right to vote;
Exclusive Urban-specific campaign in Bengaluru and other selected districts, where
urban participation is very poor/ low, to overcome the urban apathy, if any;
For easy enrolment, registration and participation of NRIs in the democratic processes
following can be done:

Avoid charging fees for attestation from embassies and consulates or permit for
self-attestation;
Open more attestation centres in easy accessible areas other than embassies;
By utilizing the modern technologies, NRIs should be allowed to vote by postal
ballot electronically or at Indian missions abroad;
Conducting awareness campaigns, nukkad nataks, remote ballots, effective use of social
media, geographical survey of India, systematic online voting; NGOs may help in
recognition of villages and registration of new voters;
Introducing e-registration and verification camps for people in remote areas to access
registration facility by appointing people for assisting the needy. Speedy process for
issuing identity cards to new voters;
Extensive motivation campaigns aimed at education and awareness of voters should be
strategically planned and implemented, focusing more on the why part of the voting, as
follows:
Inter-personal communication
o Through Government of India Media units- Song and Drama
Division, Directorate of Field publicity; Directorate of Audio Visual
Publicity etc;
o Government of India, Non-media Departments- National Service
Scheme volunteers, National Cadet Corps, Scouts and Guides etc. to be
extensively used for mobilizing youth and creating awareness.
Mass-Media All India Radio, Doordarshan to be main vehicles combined with
a good mix of private channels, FM Radio and Print Media;

Voters

education is a primary pre-requisite. Voter should be aware of:

Voter registration;
EPIC/Identity proofs;
Polling station location;
For use of EVMs, EVM familiarisation camps could be planned etc.
Voters facilitation centres to be set up at strategic locations in order to spread
awareness;
Timing of the poll in specific and outreach areas;
Dos and donts with regards to Model Code of Conduct like: use of money,
muscle and liquor power by candidate or their associate to influence electorate;
How to file complaints;
Literacy, Awareness, Participation programmes;
Identifying Polling Stations that need to be targeted;
Engagement with Media particularly Radio FM channels, All India Radio,
Doordarshan;
Each district to have its own locally initiated Innovative activities/plan like
Sankalp Yatra, Bulava tolli etc;
Information enabling citizens to vote, including the date, time, and place of
voting; Photo Voters Slips;
Posters, banners, pamphlets, hoardings;
For people living in Naxal affected areas, increasing security, judiciously increasing
polling booths, detention of probable threats, escorting people to polling booth,
awareness programmes for women etc may be helpful in increase the voting percentage;
More female employees should be included during the drive to make the women feel
more comfortable;
In case of compulsory migration of selective people, they could be provided with voter ID
cards for the place of migration and if not then online voting should be substituted;
Universal Voter ID;
Identify qualified women to serve on election management bodies;

Use of Social Networking sites and android apps;

Formation of model polling booths;
Offer discounts for regular voters in railway travel etc;
Voter awareness express;
Using other celebrities/stars power;

Ways to reach out to relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational institutions,

youth/student volunteer networks and other formal and informal groups:
The Election commission can reach out to the relevant CSOs, opinion leaders, educational
institutions, youths/ students volunteer networks, Local bodies, NGOs and other formal and
informal groups by:
Appointing more volunteers who would go to remote places and other areas to make
people aware of their voting rights;
More drives should be taken up for making voter id cards as well as awareness
generation for which local NGOs / CBOS/ local bodies should be contacted;
Forms to be made available for volunteering to strengthen voter awareness and
participations. Such forms should be made available at prominent places including
banks, post offices, colleges, universities etc. The volunteers should be provided with
relevant trainings in a group so that voter awareness can be conducted in an effective
manner. Street plays in local language would be a good means to spread electoral
awareness in the rural areas;
Use of national, regional and local icons in promotional activities on election;
Compulsory participation in election awareness by NGOs, CSOs, educational institutions.
Special funds may be made available to NGOs, CBOs for the election awareness
programme.
Many law interns from various national law universities undergo internship for a month.
RLEK volunteers in such programme and many a times more than 600 interns
volunteered their support in elections which equated the work of 50 full time paid
employees. Therefore such interns can be involved in such awareness programmes by
taking care of their travel expenses;
Special trainings to Anaganwadi members and gram sabhas;
Effective grassroots level good practices/ innovative measures of community
mobilization:
The Election Commission of India does work upon some new strategies yet some others which
may be considered are as follows:
Keeping a vigil on registered people to see who votes and who does not;
Imposition of fine on registered non-voters;
Removal of travel fare of Government buses for one day;
Registration to be made mandatory;
Linking of voter ID with AADHAR or PAN Card for automatic registration;
Instant registration facility at the time of election;
Celebration of Nationals Voters Day in every educational institution would encourage
youth participation;
Various non profitable and non-governmental organizations should aid in by involving
interns who shall spread awareness in rural areas;
Youth has been described as the doctors of democracy and hence more and more
youth should be involved in the process;
Free pick-up and drop facility should be provided for the senior citizens as this would
make them come out of their doors and vote;

Street plays and use of local language would be a better way of spreading electoral
education in the rural areas;
More number of counters and polling booths would initiate faster and easier casting of
votes, further increasing the voting;
Fair price and ration Shops could be considered for pooling stations;
Universal voter id card;
Separate queues for senior citizens and physically disabled;
Accessible and convenient polling booths.

Though, independent observers are appointed by Election Commission of India, however they are
not enough especially in the sensitive areas and booths. Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra
(RLEK) were appointed as independent observers by the Election Commission of India for the
assembly elections for all the districts in Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2002. The report
submitted by RLEK volunteers was highly appreciated and many of the suggestions were
accepted.
Suvarna Raj, Social Worker, Delhi
I am Suvarna Raj a women with disability. Currently, I am rendering my services as a Social
Worker for the persons with disabilities in Delhi from last 7-8 years. I am working with some
different NGOs which are engaged in working for the disabled people, organizing awareness
camps for health, disability rights, education and Paralympic Sports. The associations is also
providing necessary skill training to rehabilitate them. I also work towards developing Accessible
public infrastructure and environment for the persons with disabilities. I have participated in
many International meeting/conference at Korea, Nepal, Malaysia etc. of disability movements.
Also I am an International Para Table Tennis player and Medallist. I would like to share that last
year I participated in Asian Para Games 2014 at Korea in Table Tennis. I won Gold Medal in
National Abilympics 2014 2014 at Chandigarh in "Waste Reuse" skill, and I will be participating in
International Abylimpics 2015 in France. More details on my awards can be obtained here.
People with disabilities faces serious difficulties while casting their vote in the elections as a
number of polling booths across the country neither have accessible washrooms nor reserved
parking. Also, there is no record of the number of disabled voters in India or Delhi and no
information on complaints and action taken on violations of the Supreme Court's order to provide
facilities in polling booths for disabled voters. In last Delhi State elections, the Chief Electoral
Officer of Delhi took initiative to provide information of people with disabilities and their nature of
disability on the website. Over 80,000 disabled voters, including visually challenged and hearing
impaired are registered in the Capital. For the first time ever, to facilitate differently-abled voters
to exercise their franchise, the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi made provision of around 2,500
wheelchairs at the polling booth. In coming time each of the 11,763 polling stations in the
national capital will have a sign language expert on standby to aid the hearing impaired.
Many voters with disabilities are unable to cast their vote in the elections due to inaccessible
polling booths. I would like to suggest some recommendations for People with disability (PWD):

Parking for the disabled people near polling booth;

Voter card to mentioned the nature of disability of the voter and the voter card
application form should have a column for the same;
They should ensure adequate number of Braille ballot papers for the visually impaired in
every polling booth;
Voter card offices and counters should be accessible for the PWDs;
Online forms and website should be accessible;

Polling station should be accessible for all PWDs and facility of wheelchair should be
available in all booths;
Many of polling booth's doors are not broad enough for the wheelchair to enter;
Booth level officers to be sensitized to deal with PWDs;
Though all Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are Braille-enabled, Section 49 N of the
Conduct of Election Rules 1961 allows a blind or a physically infirm person who is unable
to recognise the symbol on the ballot paper/EVM, to be accompanied by another person
appropriate actions should be taken and ensure to make accessible all Elections for
people with disabilities.
All Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are Braille-enabled, Section 49 N of the Conduct of
Election Rules 1961 allows a blind or a physically infirm person who is unable to
recognise the symbol on the ballot paper/EVM, to be accompanied by another person,
however appropriate actions should be taken to ensure that such facilities are available
at the polling booths for people with disabilities.

I humbly request the Election Commission of India to ensure the implementation of the directions
of the Honourable Supreme Court of India dated 26.10.2010, keeping in mind the Section 59 of
the Persons with Disabilities (Equal opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act,
1995.
Abraham Karammel, Retired NRI, Kerala
I appreciate and understand the eagerness and honesty of those who wish to improve Indian
democracy thru a higher electoral participation. But I request all to consider the facts below:
I wish to point out the futility of Indian elections, when the quality of the elected representatives
and the performance of the Parliament and Assemblies are so poor. During the 67 years of
independent India, the performance of representative democracy has been miserable. As result
worlds largest democracy has worlds largest group of poorest people; 8 Indian states alone had
420 million poor that is more than the 410 million poor in the poorest 26 African countries. I read
about a new UN report about this fact in the news recently.
Based on the facts above, I wish and request you all to put your efforts and thoughts in a
different and more creative and really beneficial endeavour. Greater efforts are needed in the
strengthening of the decentralization of governance in India. The Peoples Planning in Kerala
produced several well developed Panchayats and many excellent projects and processes in the
local governance arena. This happened, just because of the 35 to 40 percent plan fund was given
directly to the Local Self-Government Institutions (LSGIs) in Kerala since 1996; wherever people
friendly groups were in local government, they developed their panchayat. Examples are
Elappully, Akathethara and Adat panchayats in Kerala; there are more and I have the proof and
documentation. The conceptual defect is the idea that people can plan well, while even experts
find planning difficult and erratic in the fast changing and quite volatile socio-economic evolution.
My research for a process for Keralas/Indias fast development discovered Porto Alegre
Innovation. It is a special form of Participatory Budgeting (PB); it is a very efficient decentralized
local governance process. In fact the Innovative PB process evolved in the Brazilian city during
1989 thru 2001 is worlds most systematic and most efficient decentralized and democratic
process. Peoples' participation was only 0.58 to 3.5 percent during a period of 15 years; they
handled only about 3 to 12 percent of the budget by appropriate allocation for infrastructure
alone with prioritization. This very flexible and people centred process is suitable for any village,
town or city in any country; therefore, it is copied in over 40 countries world-wide - from
Argentina to China and from Spain to the US. The UK and Dominican Republic have implemented
PB in all their local governments by 2013.

I invite your attention to this important and decisive fact and request your efforts in this matter!
If Keralas Peoples Planning is modified with an adapted Porto Alegre style Innovative PB, it will
develop Keralas villages, towns and cities very fast. Examples already evolved in Kerala prove
that development is possible even in such adverse situations. Unfortunately these models are not
highlighted!
I am sharing for your review two of my documentations on the Internet:

Two Supermodels of fast development a power-point presentation on Singapore and

Porto Alegre - for a review of the Power Point slideshow, click here and for an instant
download click here
(Singapore is worlds most efficient and successful city for the last 35 years and Porto
Alegre is Brazils city with the best quality of life and worlds most systematic and efficient
decentralized governance model)
Porto Alegre Innovation an exhaustive study of the ingenious and excellent
Participatory Budgeting (PB) process for fast socio-economic development can be viewed
here

As this PB process is less personality dependent, it can produce good results even without
dedicated super-personalities for its implementation
Bimla Chandrasekar, EKTA, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
Firstly we all join together in congratulating the ECI for initiating SVEEP campaign since 2009. In
our opinion, the targeted list is quite exhaustive. In our educational system the focus on
citizenship is inadequate and most often elections are seen as an act of political parties. This
understanding need to change to make our democratic process more participatory and
vibrant. Some of the suggestive strategies are:
Initiating citizens forums at the district and sub district level could be a viable option.
Local Self Government Institutions like the Panchayats may be given the responsibility to
monitor the voter's enrolment process. During election time local level adhoc committees
with adequate representation of youth and women may be formed to motivate the voters
by creating awareness about the power of voting;
In the recent years, we have good practices like the district collector's / opinion leaders
going to different colleges and holding enrolment camps. This process needs to be
continued and further strengthened. Studies have shown that the women SHGs / Women
Federations play a very important role in electoral process. Such groups may be given
additional trainings and some recognition during the election process to act as change
agents. Similarly CSOs with focus on governance related activities may be roped in to this
process;
Audio Visual is a very powerful communication system. Posters and video spots may be
designed for creating awareness among the public at large with special focus on the new
voters;
During election grass root campaigns like "Know your Candidates" has been effective;
Inviting the contesting candidates to a common platform to respond to the people's
issues also has been found effective in places where the contesting candidates are
cooperative;
We strongly feel that the campaign focus need to be strengthened by inviting more and
more participation of the youth, women and the disadvantaged groups.
Satendra Jain, Lok Nahrik Kalyan Samiti, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh

During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, our organization supported the ECI in the implementing
SVEEP programme by reaching out to the voters of outreach areas in rural as well as urban
areas. During the contact programme, we created awareness as well as motivated the voters to
enrol and cast their vote. From our experience of working at the grassroots level for inclusion of
the excluded communities, we came across certain facts and issues, if addressed could lead to
strong democracy and strengthened decentralization. We have collated them in the form of
Problems and Solutions. 11 major problems and issues related to improving the Election
Management, its reach and ways to include the left out groups have been identified and solutions
to the problems have also been given.
The identified problems are related to prisoners, transgender, lack of support and noncooperation of government employees in election processes, migrant labours, and nomadic
community, luring of voters using money and liquor, distance of polling both from the habitation
areas, long queues at polling booths and influence of polling booth by criminal and affluent
polling agents etc. The detailed document is in Hindi and can be viewed here.

Many thanks to all who contributed to this query!

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