Campaigns urge youth to wake up and vote for honest leaders

Such programmes have been launched in the past but NGOs say the response this time has been better than एवर

New Delhi: Campaigns that are aimed at goading reluctant Indian voters to exercise their fundamental right are increasingly gaining in popularity, giving rise to hope that the turnout in this general election could see a significant rise from the 58% recorded in the 2004 polls.
Such well-organized campaigns are focusing largely on new voters. In the past five years, the number of voters has risen by 43 million to 714 million from 671 million.

Beginner’s guide: A file photo of people queuing up outside a polling booth in Tripura. The voter awareness campaigns are focusing largely on the 43 million new voters added across India in the last five years. PTISome such prominent campaigns are Jaago Re! (wake up), Lead India, VoteIndia, Let’s Vote, as well as a voter awareness campaign by the Association for Democratic Reforms, or ADR, a non-governmental organization (NGO).
The ADR campaign, “Sachche ko Chune, Achche ko Chune” (vote for the honest, vote for good people), was launched earlier this month. The campaign, which comprises three ad films, print advertisements, Internet and mobile phone messages, is being supported by actor Aamir Khan. The ads have been made by the actor’s production company, Aamir Khan Productions Pvt. Ltd, free of cost.
“ADR is attempting to get the youth involved as much as possible. Most of our volunteers are youngsters,” says Jagdeep Chhokar, a founder-member of ADR. “Aamir Khan himself offered to do that campaign, and we gladly accepted it. Now these films are being aired on all TV channels and FM radio stations. They were all, in fact, made free of cost. The Election Commission also has them on its website...the idea is to influence people to come and vote, and vote intelligently and carefully.”
The youth are being targeted because their number has increased.
N. Bhaskara Rao
Chairman, CMS
“We also have an SMS campaign where you can send in a text with your zip code and you would get the latest information about your constituency—the candidate, etc... All this is also being provided free of cost by all service providers...these are our sustained initiatives till elections get over.”
Another campaign gaining in popularity is Jaago Re! One Billion Votes, which claims to be “a non-profit, non-partisan campaign”. One of the first campaigns to be launched, Jaago Re! is unique because it marks the coming together of an NGO and a corporate house—Janaagraha and Tata Tea Ltd.
Launched in September, before the six assembly elections late last year, the campaign facilitates voter registration apart from spreading awareness through its ad films splashed across TV channels.
For Janaagraha, the idea came up when it decided to check the voters’ list at a constituency in Bangalore and found an error rate of up to 60%. It then decided to take up the issue of voter registration, with special emphasis on youth.