Dr. Nasim Zaidi, Election Commissioner of India, launched the website indiavoting.org to bring voter registration at the doorstep of Corporate India in order to overcome urban voter apathy and increase voter turnout on election day.
Speaking at the ‘Voter Awareness and Registration Initiative Launch Ceremony’ organized by FICCI, Election Commission of India (ECI) with Centre for Ethical Life and Leadership (CELL) and NASSCOM, Dr. Zaidi pointed out that gender gap in registration and voter turnout, urban apathy to electoral participation and youth disconnect with the electoral process have emerged as the biggest challenges.
To combat these issues, he suggested that creating awareness, motivating people to participate in the electoral process and facilitating and easing out the process for registration were some of the ways to increase voter turnout.
Dr. Zaidi said that the Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) wing of the Election Commission commenced work in late 2009.
The Chief Election Commissioner of India, V S Sampath, whose message was read out in absentia, lauded the participation of the private sector to enhance electoral participation in the country. “There is hardly any cause that deserves a higher place in CSR. I always felt that a major contribution in the field of voter education and awareness is due from the vibrant and resourceful industrial and business houses. The action starts from home with registration and voting of their own staff and employees,” he said.
Akshay Rout, Director General, Election Commission of India, said that the launch of the website will help in connecting India. With this initiative, the Election Commission and the corporate sector will work in an organized way which will also help in reaching out to the youth who must be enrolled in a big way to increase the overall voter turnout. Corporates can engage their resources to get into the community and motivate people to register and vote.
Sidharth Birla, President of FICCI, in his remarks, said that several reasons could be attributed to voter apathy, from bad governance, lack of voter trust and interest in political and electoral processes to low literacy rate. He said the issues that need to be addressed for increasing voter awareness and participation are gender gap in registration and voter turnout, urban apathy to electoral participation, youth disconnect with the electoral process, participation of weaker sections and informed and ethical voting.
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