Voters Awareness Campiagn in Jhunjhunu

The two constitution amendments added new value in the Local Self Governance structure of our country India. After independence we have gone through many developmental activities to bring the country in the mainstream of development. Our political system is considered to biggest democracy in the world. After, 74^th Amendment in the constitution there has been a stress on strengthening of Urban Governance. These all amendments are the part of decentralisation of governance. Many states of Indian sub continent have constituted Local Governance Structure as per the respective amendments. Rajasthan state is also a representative of western India, which has created a special place in the actualisation of the decentralisation process. In spite of many crisis situation like drought in the state there has been many developmental works, which is quite significant in the context of the state’s development. Govt. of Rajasthan has skilfully implemented the provisions of 73^rd and 74^th amendment acts. Recently it has observed its third PRI election that was quite fair and presently, the state has just completed its Urban Local Bodies (ULB) Election. A major part of the state has observed ULB Election (Nagarpalika Chunaav) on 17^th of August 2005.  Many Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) were the key role player of the free and fair election in the state.

The campaign was named as Pre-Election Voters Awareness Campaign (PEVAC), which was all around a month’s activity. The central focus of the campaign was to aware the innocent voters about their rights to vote and to elect the right candidate for their ward. It is considered that there are many things in the election, which prohibits the free and fair election, and the phrase becomes true “ jo hai shaktishaali wahi jitega”. The candidates use different techniques to attract their innocent voters and voters become confuse to select the right candidates. The concept of PEVAC can be justified from the fact that our voters are really innocent and they don’t know to use their voting rights in justifiable manner.

 In Shekhawati Region of Rajasthan, Samaj Network and Shikshit Rojgar Kendra Prabandhak Samiti (SRKPS) took the leadership as nodal agencies to cover the campaign in the five districts i.e. Jhunjhunu, Churu, Sikar, Hanumangarh and Sri Ganganagar. The activity started with an introduction meeting with NGOs at Jhunjhunu on 8^th July 2005 after the notification of the ULBs election. Finally it ended up on 14^th August 2005 just before the election i.e. on 17^th August 2005. Many NGOs took participation in Urban PEVAC in the leadership of SRKPS under the banner of Samaj Network.  The district administration also supported and praised the activity, as a beneficial event for the voters and free & fair election.

Pre Election Voters Awareness Campaign (PEVAC) is a process with a series of activities involved at different levels with the involvement of different stakeholders. The PEVAC is essentially non-political in nature and seeks to create an enabling environment for a free and fair election, encourage voters to make the best use of their rights of franchise, to enable voters to cast their ballots properly, to enhance voters information on all aspects of elections, enabling voting with appropriate discernment, to encourage participation of women and members of SC/ST communities, both as voters and as candidates, to facilitate free and fair elections and to generate awareness on responsible electoral behavior, thereby checking participation of dummy candidates.

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