Under the Election Commission (EC) under Uttar Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa, who has looped in the district administration and the Education Department, a new initiative has been devised to increase the voter turnout so as to bring it on par with the national average, according to IANS.
Now school children are being encouraged to communicate a message to their parents. They will soon be writing to their parents: "My future is linked with a strong democracy of the country and for this I would like you to pledge to check your names in the voter list and surely vote in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls."
The officials further informed that the measure is part of EC's SVEEP (Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation) initiative.
More about the initiative
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer's office has reached out to the Director General of School Education, requesting the assistance of school children in Uttar Pradesh to write letters to their parents.
Parents will also be urged to sign a "pledge letter", committing themselves and all eligible family members to use their voting rights in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. For this, both parents will have to sign the pledge letter and will have to further provide their address, mobile number, and email address.
Importance of comics
The Director of Uttar Pradesh Basic Education, Pratap Singh Baghel, has forwarded a letter to all basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) to download soft copies of comics as they are an important outreach medium even in this digital age.
The initiative takes the help of comics with characters like Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu, being used to convey election-related information creatively, the officials further added.
These letters will serve as a means to inspire all 1.9 crore school children affiliated with the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Department to craft heartfelt messages to their parents, encouraging them to actively engage in the electoral process. This would further instill a sense of informed and responsible citizenship from an early age, the officials told IANS.
