A National Change Via Apps: Vote India!

With 2014 General Elections knocking the door, I feel as an Indian citizen, it is our individual responsibility to spread the awareness, inspire and motivate people specially the youth, who constitute the majority of the population of the country and is about to become the youngest country by 2020, to vote.

Amid the changes in the attitudes of the people and the record 66 per cent of around 1.2 crore voters exercising their voting grants in the Delhi assembly election it gave the Delhiiets the mega change in the capital. This has fueled the hopes of the change we Indians have been craving for that we have the power to choose our people to govern the state and the nation to serve the citizens and make the country a better one.

Now on an individual level our access to reach a large number of people in today's time is through internet and mobile apps. even to ask others to turn up for an event its the fastest way to reach people. Given that out of there are 51 million smartphone users in urban India today with the young generation using smartphones and its various apps more than the rest of the population.

First we need to understand why people do not vote. There are many reasons: lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of elections, apathy towards the entire procedure and worse they prefer enjoying the off day. 

Here the the mobile chat apps, like we-chat, can be used to encourage the youth and make them motivate others, even the elder generations who by now have somewhere given up on the system or do not understand its significance.

I have decided to create a page on Facebook listing out the basics of voting and Election Commission rules and share it with my contacts on my mobile apps. The page will talk about the rules attached to voting for example the 49-O rule.

“Rule 49-O is a rule in The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961[1] of India, which governs elections in the country. It describes the procedure to be followed when a valid voter decides not to cast his vote, and decides to record this fact. The apparent purpose of this section is to prevent the election fraud or the misuse of votes.”

-[source-Wikipedia.]

I'll be updating my contacts with news related to EC through the various sharing options on the chat apps, like the one I'm already sharing; Indian Election Commission has tied up with Google where the later will tender EC its resources like search engines to enable voters to check with their enrollment statuses online and also to locate the polling stations through Google maps.  

Conducting various discussions and debates over politics, government, parties, the candidates and the needs of people and the nation would be a good motivating factor. And invitation to these events will be sent through the mobile apps. The videos of these discussions can be later shared with others through the smartphone apps and let it go viral. I am already listing the topics to discuss and I have many friends contributing. 

Sharing various photos and videos, through these mobile apps, that motivate to vote can boost up the level of enthusiasm of the youth to get what they want by casting votes. I am collecting such photographs and videos and also making one of my own where I will have some young volunteers prompting India to wake up and make the desired transformation. A month before the elections I’ll begin with my sharing.

On the week of election till the D-day of it, my status on the apps will be “Election Week; # of day/s to go”. This will act as a reminder to all of my contacts of the day they will contribute to the change and
not to take the Election Day as a holiday to chill but to get up, walk into the polling stations and cast their votes to the candidate they feel is apt to win. This will ensure that they can chill after the right government is in power. 

It's our duty and its up to us to make India the country we want to live and to let Her set as an example to the world as a great country to look up to and with the right use of these latest technology, the mobile apps, we can bring in the CHANGE.  

 

This post has been written for the motivating contest held by We-Chat and Indiblogger; "Indian General Elections 2014 with social mobile apps".  

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Acknowledgements: The Times of India and Wikipedia.
Illustration: By Namrota (Me, the author of CoffeeBeans).