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Chatra district of Jharkhand has total population 676780 Electors under Assembly Constituency of 27-Chatra and 26-Simaria with 3,57,962 as Male and 3,18,818 as Female. Whereas electors under Chatra and Simaria is 4,29,973 with 2,13,940 as male and 2,16,033 as Female which is 50.24%. As per Census 2011 out of total population, 6% people lives in Urban areas while 94% lives in the Rural areas. The average literacy rate in urban areas is 80.9% while that in rural areas is 58.8%. Sex Ratio of Urban areas in Chatra district is 867 while that of Rural areas is 959. Referring to previous general elections 2014's Voters turn out at 54.32%, and 95% of population residing in rural pocket as per DCHB 2011 data and significant females too, hence District SVEEP team planned for intervention with women voters within rural pockets too, relying on presence of field teams of JSLPS [Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society under the aegis of Rural Development Department, Government of Jharkhand] to reach out the rural communities especially women to talk about their active electoral participation. Women’s self-help groups (SHGs) have been engaged as agents of social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for transformation in many parts of the country. SHGs are “membership-based community institutions” whose members with mutual support attempts to transform every individual living under National Rural Livelihood Mission. Chatra JSLPS is currently engaged with more than 75000 women in this district under this intervention, thus a wonderful platform at rural pocket. Each SHG comprises of 10–20 women from similar socio-economic backgrounds who live in the neighbourhood, meet regularly and save small amounts of money in a common account. Capitalizing on the quantum of SHG members, District SVEEP team decided to facilitate a medium for communication channel among rural women. Women SHGs in the district, as standard practices conduct regular interactions for thrift and saving followed with discussion on local issues of their concerns from the neighbourhood among the members to benefit in creation of space for better living. This experience of being in a group and interacting with other women boost women’s self-confidence and their active participation in community processes. Presence of SHGs and their organizational capacities inspired District SVEEP Team to leverage for wider outreach of information on electoral literacy and active participation from all rural household. District JSLPS [Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society under the aegis of Rural Development Department, Government of Jharkhand] team played a pivotal role in harnessing the social capital with the engagement of Women SHG members for electoral participation. Training program were planned for community cadre at block level and supplemented with booklets and pamphlets on electoral process as a tool for reference. Post to the capacity building exercise, the community cadres initiated sensitization sessions with members of SHGs during their weekly meetings targeting to reachout their entire villages under the Block in months time. The community cadres started disseminating information on electoral process during weekly SHG meetings, Village Organization meetings and Cluster Level Federation meetings and concluded with a pledge to facilitate similar process with their neighbourhood women and family members. Special camps were organized for electoral list rectification and modification with information within these women SHG meetings for maximum outreach in coordination with respective BLOs [Booth Level Officer] in village as no voter been left behind. Audio and video means were adopted by local Block level JSLPS Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society under the ageis of Rural Development Department, Government of Jharkhand team for information dissemination. There were villages with limited access to motorable road and reachable only by motorbikes, JSLPS community cadres and field staff organized meetings with video clippings through small pico projectors and on Laptops. Apart from these, members of SHGs and their federation also helped in organizing events at village level and pasting election related posters at public places and raised slogans during their brief transact walk with billboards with messages of ethical voting as provided by district SVEEP teams. District Programme Manager- NRLM, facilitated planning meeting with all Block Programme Managers of 12- Blocks for conducting SVEEP activities across 154 Panchayat with members of SHGs on daily basis for wider outreach. To initiate this process, 01-day orientation session was held with all Block In-charges of JSLPS about SVEEP and its different component along with the formulation of key processes involved especially the usage of VVPAT machine. District JSLPS team played a vital role in implanting theses strategy for SHGS members through a planned training program for each and every cadre at block level and provided them needed booklets and pamphlets as a ready reference. After their training, the Block teams started working in their respective villages facilitating weekly SHG meetings, Village Organization meetings and Cluster Level Federation meeting. As implementation plan, Team JSLPS planned for trickle down process for dissemination of the key messages for electoral participation under SVEEP through its block team. As a common approach across all the 12 blocks, district JSLPS team designed a set of common messages to be part of their sensitization meetings with women as, · All eligible voters above 18 years must cast their vote along with the responsibility of mobilizing the other persons in their neighborhood, · Ensure names of all eligible voter in the electoral list of their respective booth- if not found, to contact the respective BLOs for enrollment support along with the needed forms for submission or any form of addition, modifications/ correction needed, · Disseminate the usage of VVPAT [Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail] machine, a new initiative of ECI during the general election 2019, with the help of available posters as provided by ECI [Election Commission of India] and on its functioning as display of paper slips of casted votes within the secret chamber for 07 seconds and · Mention the list of IDs cards permissible as mentioned by ECI to be carried on poll day by eligible voters in case of non availability of EPIC/ voters cards. During the process, discussions were also held on for free and fair election process and reporting of unfair incidents through cVIGIL applications available for download from Play store of android phones through Photos and Videos with a turnaround time of 100 minutes for redressal. JSLPS Block teams facilitated events of community meeting at village level, rally for mass mobilization with election related messages on billboards within their hamlet area, facilitated sandhya chaupal at prominent places within the villages, display of election awareness poster at prominent public sites-government buildings, video shows on laptop by CC [Community Coordinator of JSLPS] for face to face interaction within their neighborhood for mass mobilization for active electoral participation. SHGs have effective coordinated structure well connected with members across the entire district of Chatra. It was a wonderful experience working them and learn on the means of message dissemination to the last pocket of rural communities effectively. These women are true champions and responsible citizens in many ways, as District Chatra experienced tremendous increase in women Voter's turnout than men in the Lok Sabha General Election 2019 and registered a significant growth from the previous General Election of 2014.

by CEO Gujarat It is said that ‘A Woman Shapes the Home’. Then why should Women lag behind in shaping the country and its democracy! True to this thought, the Office of CEO Gujarat planned to evoke the democratic spirit of women of the State on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8th March 2018. After all, which day could be better than this to remind the women of their rights bestowed by the Constitution of India to Vote, to make a choice and to take a stand! In line with the thematic approach for behavior change, a communication & engagement campaign was planned at dual level. One intervention involved an innovative education cum motivation event with fun & games aimed to engage women into the electoral process and increase their electoral participation. Two different games were developed for the event. A special game of ‘Snakes & Ladders’ with messages on electoral participation was designed. This was before the ELC game of ‘Snakes & ladders’ was introduced by the ECI and thus it was a novel and fun concept at the time. The game was designed specifically to provide the requisite information about enrolment to the women and motivating them to cast their vote in every election without fail. The messages on the game covered wide variety of topics like enrolment eligibility, EVM&VVPAT, why casting vote is important, how every vote is important, ethical voting, Photo Voter Slip, facilitation by the BLO, various facilities available for women & PwD at Polling Stations etc. As per the modified version of the game, unhealthy/unwanted voting behaviors were discouraged by sliding down with snakes and healthy voting behaviors were encouraged with sliding up with ladders. Apart from ‘Snakes & Ladders’, a ‘Chit-Game’ was developed with a list of 30-40 statements related to different steps of electoral participation written on different paper chits. These statements were mostly informative or action statements related to processes like enrolment, different forms for enrolment and change in details like name or address, procedure for changes in electoral roll, EPIC, facilities available at the Polling Stations for PwDs and other good practices that constitute a healthy voting behavior. Both the games were disseminated to all Districts & Blocks. Large sized prints of the Snakes & Ladders were organized. Women’s Day celebration programs were organized at District & Block level, which were attended by large number of women members including the members of Self-Help Groups, volunteers of Mahila Samakhya, Aanganwadi Workers and many others. The women members played both the games with lot of enthusiasm and fervor. Their interest was palpable and the excitement was obvious. Similarly in the ‘Chit-Game’, the women participants were asked to pick a chit from the bowl of chits and read aloud the statements on it. These statements were then written on a large board in legible handwriting. The participants were to copy them and rearrange these statements in an appropriate sequential order in their respective sheets with an aim that they understand the complete electoral process properly. The participant who rearranged these statements in the correct sequence was declared as the winner of the game. All across the State, women members participated in the programs with lot of zest and zeal. The approach of learning with fun proved to be really an effective one. Another intervention, apart from these group events, was a simultaneous communication campaign based on women’s empowerment designed in form of a series of creations. Theme based creations featuring eight different categories of women viz. Blind, Deaf & Dumb, Wheel chair bound, Housewife, Rag-picker, Tribal woman and Rural woman were designed. The cross cutting theme was ‘Despite any odds, I can do it’. The creations further added that the election machinery salutes all women who have the spark of determination. The creations were widely disseminated over social media platforms and whats app as well as were used as banners and hoardings all across the State in different events and programs. Women’s empowerment is the dire need of the growing times. She is a mother, she is a wife, she is a sister, she is a life-partner, and she is considered a member of not one but two families. If a woman of the house is electoral literate, motivated and inspired to cast vote, she can influence generations to come and the entire society. And that is what we hope and strive for.