Quirky drives to enrol young voters

KOLKATA: When you turn 18, do not ask for an iPhone or a motorcycle, but ask for your voter ID card: That's the message from the Election Commission to the youth.
Though Bengal clocks a high voter turnout in elections than in other parts, the apathy among urban voters is evident. With a target set by the EC to enrol more youngsters and women during the summary revision of electoral rolls, various districts have come up with innovative campaigns to encourage youngsters to go in for voting.The summary revision of electoral rolls began on September 1 and the final rolls will be published on January 5, 2016.
Months before the assembly elections, the entire EC, led by chief election commissioner Naseem Zaidi, is scheduled to reach Kolkata on Wednesday . The members will meet every political party , followed by meetings with district magistrates and police chiefs on Thursday .
To encourage youngsters to participate in the election process, Siliguri has come up with a few “off-beat“ drives.SDO Rajanvir Kapur has initiated a “cake campaign“. As part of it, district officials, including Kapur, visited schools, colleges, malls, markets and urban spaces across Siliguri, where they gathered youngsters who had turned 18 this year and celebrated their birthdays. “We cut the cake with all those who turned 18 and distributed Form 6 (it has to be filled to be included on the electoral roll) among them,“ said Kapur. After the cake was cut, the 18-year-olds were asked to pledge to enrol themselves as voters.
The cake campaign is part of the Election Commission's Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign, for which the Siliguri administration has also roped in the EC's na tional icon, boxing champion MC Mary Kom. A video of Mary Kom, urging people to participate in the electoral process, is being played on local cable channels in the region.
To enrol more women, the administration has also initiated the Sabalika drive, the catch line for which is “Ebar tomar pala (it's your turn now)“; the Sabalika drive is also linked to the cake campaign. Instead of a celebrity , a local girl, Payel Roy , was chosen as the face of the Sabalika campaign. “We chose her because she applied for Form 6 on September 5, the day she turned 18,“ said Kapur. The campaign seemed to have struck a chord, which would push up the number of women applying for voter ID cards, an official said.
In Malda, the district administration observed September 7 as “College cholo naam tolo“ day . District officials visited institutes, asking students to enrol as voters. Moreover, football matches were held across Bengal as part of the campaign; at the state level, a match between CEO XI and Journalists' XI was organised where the former won.