Page 14 - voice-international-oct2022

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to spread awareness at the ground level. District
level collaborations with cinema theatres, petrol
pumps, market associations and shopping malls
are effective. The transport department plays an
extremely important role in reaching out at national,
state and district level. Similarly the education
department, telecom service providers and social
media platforms use their wide reach to target
different sections of society.
With an aim to connect to the masses, ECI
associates itself with non-partisan national Indian Railways carrying messages for voters
celebrities from various fields and appoints
them as ECI’s national icons. Similarly renowned being traversed by the train) motivating over 920
individuals in States are appointed as State million voters of the country. The campaign logo
icons. Voter awareness is taken up through these ‘Desh Ka Mahatyohar’ (Great Festival of Democracy)
icons, leveraging the ability of these inspirational was also embedded in National and regional
personalities to form an authentic connection with languages.
the voter.
Numerous partnerships and collaborations were Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
undertaken during the Lok Sabha 2019 elections. A Similar efforts were undertaken with the
few examples are as follows: Metro-Rail in New Delhi to create awareness of
the elections. The aim was to appeal to urban
Democracy on Wheels commuters and combat urban apathy. Election-

The Election Commission of India and Indian related messages were vinyl wrapped on the outside
Railways joined together to vinyl wrap trains and displayed on every available surface inside
with the hashtag #GoVote in the 2019 Lok Sabha metro coaches. These were linked with well-known
Election. Consequently, numerous trains, covering TV shows and cartoons with an urban middle-class
the length and breadth of the entire country, were audience in mind.
used to spread the message of voter awareness. The
focus was to make sure that everyone is aware of FM Radio
the importance of voting. The vinyl wrap featured A nationwide voter awareness and motivation
ECI’s national icons like renowned actor of Hindi campaign titled ‘Ab Watan Dabayega Button’
Cinema, Aamir Khan and Olympic Medalist Mary (The nation will now press the voting button) was
Kom and other ECI state icons (as per the state launched in collaboration with 93.5 Red FM. Several
Red FM RJs were identified as Youth Ambassadors
in their respective cities by CEO
offices. The RJs were trained on
electoral processes and they
reached out to an audience of
approximately 14,21,000 listeners
every day during the campaign.
The popular radio stations
decided to go all-out to not only
boost the number of voters in
their coverage region but also to
encourage ethical and informed

14 | VoICE International | October 2022