THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Oct 23: Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) is being motivated to vote. The team of SVEEP (Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation) is reaching out to the PVTG which prefers to live in isolation and are shy of voting.
Speaking to The Jharkhand Story correspondent today, Nodal Officer of SVEEP Md Jawed Hussain said, “There is a booth at Homia hamlet under the Paton block where this Lok Sabha election PVTG voted only 48 per cent. This is a matter of concern.”
Understanding barriers to voting
Md Jawed Hussain said, “I am to find out as to why PVTG didn’t vote large. Why this 48 per cent? What is so there that they didn’t reach the booth this Lok Sabha election?”
He agreed to say that a plethora of speeches or rhetorical will not be of any use. “Hum ja kar bhashan deyn. Kya hoga is sey? (Should we go there and deliver speech, what benefit will it bring). The important thing is to be listening to them instead of preaching them,” he said.
Here it is to be ensured that we touch the cord of their heart. It will be possible only when PVTG begins to trust us and understand the value of the vote, said the nodal officer.
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“To reach PVTG, it is necessary to first win over their kids. Balloons will do. We will give them. Once their mothers and fathers come, we will be sitting the way they sit. None of us would be in any chair. Chairs make us away from these simpletons,” opined the Nodal Officer.
The SVEEP team is doing two things intertwined with each other. First creating awareness about participation in voting. Second to diagnose the ills in regard to the poor voting. So SVEEP team here is on an informative and curative mission.
Events to promote voter participation
Reminded that there is a severe crunch of time the Nodal Officer said, “We are making the best of every minute. All for improving the voting percentage.”
There is going to be an auto rickshaw/battery rickshaw traffic show with banners and posters for voting.
“Drivers of public transportation are generally overlooked. Here we are to make them feel they are as important to voting as others”, added the Nodal Officer.
A panel discussion is slated for maximum voting in the Pt Deendayal Upadhaya Smriti Bhavan on Thursday where there will be a mix of first-time voters, veteran voters, third-gender voters, voters with disabilities etc where the veteran voters, a few of them, will share their experiences of voting thereby motivating the first-time voters not to miss the voting.
