Meeting on Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation organizes

The Director General, Election Commission of India, Akshay Rout along with Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, Vijay Dev held a review meeting with the District Election Officers, government departments, civil Society organizations (CSOs) and the media partners at CEO Office Delhi at Kasmiri Gate on efforts made and strategies worked out for enhanced voters’ participation.

Akshay Rout said that on account of lower voting turn out in the past, a need was felt for innovative and inclusive strategies for informing, motivating and facilitating the citizens for their active participation in the electoral process.

To achieve this goal, the Election Commission of India has embarked upon the national programme called ‘Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP) which is basically an election management operation aimed to increase the enrolment of eligible citizens in electoral list and motivate every registered voter to vote by invoking various communication interventions and targeted programmes.

This initiative was for the first time taken during Jharkhand Assembly Elections in 2009 and since then such programme have been an integral part of 18 Assembly Elections held in various states which have yielded very encouraging results in terms of enhanced voter registration coupled with significant enhancement in voter turnout.The celebration of ‘National Voters’ Day’ on every 25^th January is also part of the SVEEP programme which is aimed to generate the momentum towards voter registration and awareness process specially amongst youth.

Rout underlined the need to have a credible and competent organization to join the movement and strengthen the laudable initiative undertaken by the CEO Delhi for bridging the enrollment amongst youth, women and marginalized sections. The department such as Social Welfare, Education, Mission Convergence , Women and Child Development are already associated with electoral process of registration.

The District Elections officers of 9 election districts also presented analysis regarding gaps identified in voter registration particularly of women and youth and the reasons of low voter turnout in the last assembly elections in Delhi. Strategies were also discussed for pointed interventions to address the problem of disconnected groups. For this purpose and to rope in the cooperation of other stakeholders, SVEEP Committees are being constituted at district levels under the chairmanship of District Election Officer.