New Initiative

Chunav Pathshalas or Electoral Literacy Clubs, are being set up across Telangana, in order to educate community members, mostly  in rural areas, to increase voter awareness and promote electoral literacy, in all age groups of citizens. The main purpose of these pathshalas or literacy clubs  is to familiarise the public with the electoral process of Registration and Voting. Chunav Pathshala  is usually  named after the polling station and is set  up and coordinated by the Booth Level Officer (BLO). The BLO takes the  responsibility to create awareness about the Chunav Pathshala, invite people's participation for the same and arranges for a fixed venue where the Chunav Pathshala will be held.  These Pathshalas are  being  held once in two months with the members meeting every  First Saturday of the alternate month  between 2pm and  4pm as per the time best suiting the location. The BLOs are maintaining a register of the members, and sending quarterly reports  to the DEO in regard of membership SVEEP POST CARD CAMPAIGN.doc 1950 (18th March 2019) Documentary.docx Chunav Pathashala.doc

Dissemination of fair and accurate information is the necessity that the Election Commission of India (ECI) holds being organiser of elections in a large democracy like India. The Commission has emphasized on involvement of all stakeholders especially media and radio being one of the important medium, of communication to connect the voters with the election machinery. For this purpose, the Commission, on 21st January 2019, organized an interactive workshop, at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra, for the Radio Jockeys of All India Radio and the leading private Radio FMs of the Delhi NCR.           Radio jockeys from major FM channels viz. Big FM, Red FM, Fever 104 FM, Radio Nasha, Ishq FM and Radio City attended 2 hours interactive session, where they participated in activities for dissemination of voter education. The workshop was a part of the engagement taken up by the Commission with the major stakeholders. It was organized to familiarize the Radio Jockeys with the election process so that they can help in wide and accurate dissemination of information to their listeners.                                                RJs during their interaction with officials from the ECI                                                             The workshop saw interactive and enthusiastic participation of the representatives. The session began with a brief introduction, followed by an activity ‘Build Your Ballot’, in which the participants built a Dummy ballot paper as part of an activity of Voter Awareness. Director, Ms. Padma Angmo interacted with the participants wherein they discussed their queries and assured to take forward the association with ECI on voter awareness in an organic manner. Her interaction was followed by a quiz, which conveyed basic information on voter awareness through interesting questions. Towards the end their suggestions were received and answered by the senior officers from the Commission during an open session.     RJs during activities, Build the ballot and election Quiz.

In order to increase the awareness of the public, regarding all aspects related to the Election, a stall  has been set up in the All India Industrial Exhibition  (Numaish) Nampally. 2019 The stall is an initiative by the Election Commission to reach out to voters at the most popular venue of the year, which is the Numaish- Nampally. Nampally Exhibition 2018-19 is one of the biggest fairs of India with a wide variety of products alluring every visitor. The Exhibition which has  more than 2500 stalls, offers visitors with many interesting choices. Traders from all over the country come here to have their stalls at the exhibition. Along with this, even state and central government departments have their stalls. Numaish is also famous for the huge number of visitors that it attracts. This year Nampally exhibition is   recording  more than 24-25 lakh  visitors.   The Election Commission Stall in the Exhibition was inaugurated by the Chief Electoral Officer, Dr. Rajat Kumar. The stall which was set up with informative posters and a Live Demo of the EVM & VVPAT voting machine which was also very popular with the public. The facility for registration as New Voters was also being given at the Exhibition Stall. More than 220 Forms for Registration, ie. Form 6  have been issued at the stall and 63 filled up forms have been received so far. Form 8 which is used for  voter ID card correction were also issued to 52 persons and 21 of these have been filled up and submitted at the stall. Knowledge and information about other forms 7 and 8A was also disseminated to the public through this stall. SVEEP POST CARD CAMPAIGN.doc 1950 (18th March 2019) Documentary.docx Chunav Pathashala.doc Stall at Numaish.docx

A major component of the ELCs programme in its execution phase was the training of ELC conveners. Considering the sheer magnitude of the numbers the project is dealing with, devising a training program itself proved to be a challenge. Finally, a system of cascaded training was adopted.   ELC Workshops for training SLMTs Workshops were conducted for State Level Master Trainers from the 36 states and union territories of the country in four batches of 40-50 participants each, in February-March 2018. Considering the activity based engagement approach that formed the basis of the ELC project, and the resources developed, the training was also planned in an activity based manner to engage the trainers rather than following a lecture based format. The vibrant workshop witnessed enthusiastic State Level Master Trainers, who were identified by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of every State, trying out the learning tools themselves and engaging in the various activities. These State Level Master Trainers now hold the responsibility of further training District Level Master Trainers, identified by the District Election Officers, who will then train the specific ELC conveners falling in their respective districts.             ELC Training of SVEEP Nodal Officers   On 13th April 2018, the SVEEP Nodal Officers of all States and UTs were invited to ECI headquarters at New Delhi, for a daylong meeting to discuss the preparedness for the Electoral Literacy Clubs project.   The second half of this meeting was centered around acquainting all SVEEP Nodal Officers with the various activities prepared for ELCs wherein the SNOs, who were part of one or the other training workshops, took the lead. The 35 Nodal Officers were divided into 5 groups and allotted 2-3 activities each. After one hour, each group made a presentation to the remaining SNOs on their activities, thus familiarizing all in the process.     ELC Workshop for training CSOs A final leg of trainings was conducted under the ELC project on the 23rd and 24th of May, 2018 at USI, New Delhi. However, this training workshop was different from others as its participants were not members of the election machinery, but in fact members of various Civil Society Organizations from across the nation.   The workshop observed the participation of 43 participants from 23 States and Union Territories. The participants were mostly associated with CSOs who have previously partnered with the Commission or CEOs for voter awareness campaigns. These CSOs covered issues related to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), rural poor, poverty alleviation, education and literacy etc. The idea now is, that CSOs will take forward the initiative of imparting electoral literacy through games and activities within their respective organizations as well as the communities they work with.

1950 as a toll free helpline for the Election Commission of India number is not new to Telangana. The Department of Telecom allocated the number of 1950 to the ECI in 2014 for the purpose of registering complaints on poll related issues and the of ce of the CEO Telangana has been running a helpline with 1950, ever since.   In view of the impending General Elections, the Election Commission of India has strengthened its Voter Helpline to make it easy for the Voters to get authentic information pertaining to their voter registration. The range of services provided by the Helpline Number 1950 have been refurbished and made easily accessible. 1950 is being made the ' rst point of call' for all citizens looking for help in reference to electoral services. The 1950 Voter Helpline will provide Information, Feedback, Suggestion and Complaints to all citizens.   The enrolled electors in the Electoral Roll can check the details of their personal information, the Polling Station allotted for them to visit on the Poll Day, and also to know the contact details of Booth Level Of cers, Electoral Registration Of cers and District Election Of cers, by using the Voter Helpline Mobile App or through www.nvsp.in Portal or by calling 1950 Helpline Number.   SVEEP POST CARD CAMPAIGN.doc 1950 (18th March 2019) Documentary.docx

A unique initiative by Gujarat a bi-monthly magazine named "Clean SVEEP".  Unique SVEEP activities carried out at State as well as District Level are included in this magazine.  Newletter_Clean SVEEP_Gujarat.pdf

Postcards may seem outdated in the digital age, but a unique initiative was planned using postcards to reach out to every household of Telangana. In addition, it is quite affordable when compared to other paid communications. This programme has been launched by the Chief Electoral Ofcer, Telangana, to ensure that every voter is reached out to and feedback collected from all the recipients of the mail though the pre-addressed postcards provided along with the letter. Since the goal of the this Postcard Campaign is to increase voter turnout, it is possible to cross-reference the mailing list or the Electoral Roll against turnout data to determine its effectiveness.This campaign is one of its kind in the country where a postcard is used as a tool to reach out to 1 crore households.   The Electoral Roll contains all the registered voters in any given area. It contains a variety of information, which includes: the voter's full name, address, date of birth. The Electoral Roll is crucial because the most accurate and common way to predict if someone will vote in an upcoming election is determining whether or not they have voted in the past.   Objective of the Voter Contact Post Card Campaign   The objective of the postcard campaign is to personally reach out to every household by the BLO. It is also aimed at collecting any query of feedback or suggestion that any voter can send directly to the CEO.   It also ensures that BLOs visit every household and distribute the letters and and collect acknowledgement of each letter.   SVEEP POST CARD CAMPAIGN.doc

VOTER GUIDE.pdf