Education Department Government of Gujarat Partnering Elections A presentation to ECI

1. Education Department Government of Gujarat Partnering Elections A presentation to ECI By Commissioner Higher Education 31.12.15

2. Introduction • Election Commission of India introduced SVEEP (Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation Programme) to reach out to the unregistered voters to increase their registration and turn out on the poll day. • Accordingly CEO Gujarat formed the result oriented strategy to implement the policy with the co-operation of various Government Departments and Institutions. • Education Department being an important department made the policy on the request of CEO and took various initiatives to approach the youth studying in Higher Education Institutes/Colleges and rural youth.

3. Activities undertaken since 2010-11A gist • Linking admissions with enrolment – official circular – first of its kind • Campus ambassadors • Appointment of school ambassadors in schools – unique to Gujarat • Direct involvement of District Education Officers/District Primary Education Officers as SVEEP nodal officers • YOUNG VOTERS' FESTIVAL every year since 2011 • QUIZ ON DEMOCRACY in primary and middle schools every year

4. Sankalpapatras • Ekrarpatra • Inter school and inter college competitions as a medium for sveep • The kartavyabodhabhiyan – Guinness world record • National voters' day celebration

5. The NCC wing under Education Department • The NSS wing under Education Department • The National Literacy Mission under Education Department • Involvement of MahilaSamakhya Society (MSS) • Training of BLOs through SATCOM • Appointment of booth level officers

6. LINKING ADMISSIONS First state in country to do it through official GR

7. Innovative approach for enrolment of new voters • Admission Forms ask for registration details. If not registered, and eligible, Form 6 is given • An innovative approach in the form of maintenance of Register to identify unregistered eligible citizens. • Circulation of register in all classes and students were asked to enter EPIC number, if registered already. • Thus, eligible but unregistered citizens can be identified.

8. Appointment of Designated Officers in all higher educational institutions

9. Appointment of Designated Officers • The Education Department appointed Designated Officers in all the Higher Education Institutes in the state. Details on CEO website. • The college admissions have been linked with Voter Registration. • In every district, a senior NSS Programme Officer, who is also a faculty member is designated as District Nodal Officer for SVEEP. The Nodal Officer remains in contact with DEOs for smooth implementation of the programme.

10. Campus Ambassadors

11. Campus Ambassador- A new approach • Appointment of 607 Campus ambassador in the various colleges. • One volunteer each deployed as Campus Ambassador in the colleges. • Awareness programme in 1300 villages of the State. • Each CA is entrusted the responsibility to work in his/her college and nearby institutions in close coordination with the BLO for registration and voters’ awareness.

12. Training of the Campus Ambassadors • The selected Campus Ambassadors were imparted training by the District Collector’s Office on the followings • Registration of all 1st time voters in college where the campus ambassador is deployed • Encourage the youth to exercise their right to vote

13. Registration of the names of the family members of the students • To involve the youth in the process of election through street plays, rallies and through social media i.eYoutube, WhatsApp,Twitter,Blog and Facebook

14. Initiatives by Campus Ambassadors • CA use to visit 10 houses each in their respective area. • They encourage unregistered eligible citizens to get registered. • They sensitize their peers for registration as voter and participate in voting.

15. Activities of CA

16. School Ambassadors – first state in country to appoint

17. School Ambassador In schools • 1400 School Ambassadors were appointed in the year 2013 by Education Department on the similar line of appointment of CA at college level.

18. District Education Officer/District Primary Education Officer appointed as Nodal officers SVEEP

19. Involvement of DEO/DPEO • DEO and DPEO appointed as nodal officer for SVEEP in the districts. • DEO and DPEO helped to chalk out detail plan for various SVEEP activities, targeting each category of voters.

20. Young Voters Festival every year since 2011

21. ‘Young Voters’ Festival • The students of age group of 15-18 years of various Educational Institutions participated in the ‘Young Voters Festival, organized at the District and Taluka level. • Volunteers/Students/Citizens enthusiastically participated in various categories of competition. • The winning entries were utilized for dissemination of voters awareness by the CEO/DEO. • Over a 1000 entries come every year. • Awards are given every year to winning entries on National Voters Day

22. Engaging our Message carriers Democracy Quiz every year in the run up to National Voters Day since 2012

23. Quiz On Democracy • Unique initiative to organize Quiz on Democracy for the students of 6 to 8 standards, the future voters since 2012. • In each primary school of the state, Quiz are organized every year in January in run up to NVD celebrations. • Over 950 primary schools participated in 2015 in which more than 70,000 students and parents took part.

24. SankalpaPatra

25. SankalpaPatra • The concept of SankalpaPatra was originated from primary schools in Gujarat State and was taken to next level during the 2012 and 2014 General Election. • A SankalpaPatra is a ‘Pledge Letter that a school going student gets to fill up prior to polls, pledging to the child that his/her parents will definitely cast his/her vote during the forthcoming elections.’ • More than 71 lakhSankalpaPatras were got signed by children of schools and colleges.

26. EkrarPatra Commitment Letter

27. EkrarPatra • Completely new concept introduced in the run up to the General Election to the Loksabha in 2014 • The EkrarPatra was acknoledged by the parents to the child that they would ensure that they are registered in the electoral roll so that they could participate in the ensuing election. • More than 50 lakhsEkrarPatras were signed in 2014.

28. Inter School Competitions

29. Inter School & Inter College Competitions as Medium For SVEEP • The Education Department alongwith the elocution, debate, painting, essay has also held innovative competitions like folk art painting (Pithora Style) where children participated with their parents and grandparents.

30. A world record

31. The KARTAVYABODHABHIYAN- Guinness World Record • A unique initiative by District Election Machinery of VALSAD in partnership with Postal Department. • Total 10.96 lakh voters in the P.C. • To send message to all voters, 10.96 lakh post cards procured. • Students of Schools, Colleges, NGOs, Professionals gathered in Cricket Ground and wrote ethical voting message artistically on post cards, which were posted to the voters. • The Act of sending such 1,11,111 post cards to the voters from a single place has won the district a place in the Guinness World Record.

32. National Voters Day Celebrations

33. National Voters’ Day Celebration • NVD is celebrated on 25th January, the foundation day of the ECI, every year. • In the state, NVD celebrated at all polling station locations, Districts and State level the BLOs facilitate newly registered voters including students of the Schools/ Colleges/ Higher Educations Institutions on NVD functions. • New voters are given EPIC and all present are administer the NVD pledge. • NVD function at Taluka and District level are held in schools and colleges across the state. • Best 3 Campus Ambassadors were felicitated at District as well as State level by the DEO and CEO respectively

34. NCC and NSS

35. Participation of NCC, in the Election Awareness under Education Department • The NCC Wing – 30 battalions of 550 each in Gujarat have participated in Voter Education Programme and also NVD. • They were given responsibility of 10 households each to encourage the citizens for the registration & electoral participation besides facilitating the eligible cadets for registration. • The NCC cadets also assisted on poll day by facilitating the voters within the polling stations to queue up and exercise their voting right.

36. The NSS Wing under Education Department • NSS has over 1,73,900 volunteers across the state. • The volunteers facilitated the citizens of their areas for registration and electoral participation. • Acting as the link between BLOs and eligible citizens for the work of registration and sharing of information regarding dead/shifted/missing voters of the area.

37. Extend active support to generate awareness on voting. • Organization of Voter awareness Rallies with suitable posters and slogans. • Participate in NVD celebration. • Organizing “Youth Parliament” focusing on electoral participation during National Science Day, celebrated on 28th February every year.

38. Activities Undertaken in colleges • All the educational institutions conducted various academic sessions for the students by involving the District Collector, Deputy Collector to give talks, so that the students understand the importance of democracy and their electoral participation.

39. Activities during NERPAP activities in Villages by the students • House to House survey • Help in filling of form 6 • Correction in the Name & Address by helping to fill form No. 8

40. NSS unit adopts one village, in which they undertake election awareness program. • 1300 Villages were covered during the entire campaign

41. Create awareness among the villagers about checking their names in the Voter list available with the BLOs • Importance of EPICs. • Awareness regarding exercising their voting right

42. Various Activities of Awareness • Various programmes/ competitions organized for dissemination of voters’ awareness, such as : • Pledge for Voting • Debate Competition • Essay Competition • Elocution Competition • Poster Competitions

43. EVM Demonstration • Use of Dummy EVM. • Guide citizens/voters on use of EVM at their door step. • Guidance on use of NOTA

44. National Literacy Mission

45. The NLM has been involved since 2011 in • Content creation • Content publication • Content dissemination • Voter motivation and awareness through Preraks

46. Women's empowerment through MSS

47. MSS- MahilaSamakhya Society • MSS is an NGO working under the administrative control of Education Department, it has its presence in 3000 villages & 9 districts in the State. • The MSS workers go house to house along with the list of voters given to them by DEOs to encourage the eligible citizens for registration, prepare the lists of missing/dead voters to share with the BLOs. • They have been playing an important role in locating missing women voters in their areas and remain in contact with respective BLOs to help them to get them registered and encourage them to actively participate in the voting process.

48. BLO training through SATCOM

49. Training of BLOs through SATCOM • Education Department provided full support in the innovative idea of CEO to directly train the BLOs from BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Application & Geo-Informatics) by issuing necessary instructions to their Block Resource Centres(BRC) equipped with Wide Area Network to make necessary arrangements for the training. • Over 45000 BLOs (teachers as well as non-teachers of the education institutions) alongwith the DEOs, Dy DEO actively participated in the interactive training programme simultaneously.

50. It’s unique that BLOs could interact directly with CEO during the programme. • This novel experiment saved time, money and energy and proved very effective.