Gurugram students sing\, dance to urge people to vote in elections

Gurugram students sing, dance to urge people to vote in elections

Gurugram college students encourage youth to exercise their right to vote, and spread awareness through street play, rangoli competition, debate, slogan writing, signature campaign.

gurgaon Updated: Mar 28, 2019 16:35 IST
Students and volunteers pose after painting a graffiti to highlight the significance of voting.

Students in Gurugram are going all out to encourage people to vote. From painting the city walls with graffiti to coming up with catchy slogans, and even singing an election anthem, these students are urging everyone to get out of their house and cast votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for May 12 in Haryana.

This awareness initiative is part of Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation Program (SVEEP). It is the flagship program of the Election Commission of India for voter education.

‘Chalo sab saath chalenge, sab matdan karenge...’ is one of the lines from the election anthem created by the students of Dronacharya Government College (DGC), Gurugram. They are seen humming these lines in a video uploaded on the Twitter handle of DC Gurugram.

“In the present scenario, the youth doesn’t want to vote because they aren’t sure about the changes that politicians will bring. But, we are motivating them,” says Raj Gupta, the president of students’ union of DGC. “To garner the interest of the youth, we had debates and a signature campaign. We started helping them with their voter cards, and got over 300 voter cards from our college with the help of the district administration. We even made a poster, and got it signed by hundreds of students as a promise that they will vote in the upcoming elections. We’ll also be making an official video of the anthem, which will be out soon,” adds Gupta.

The students of Government College for Girls (GCG) organised a rangoli competition and sang songs such as Hum Bharat Ke Matdata Hain to highlight the significance of voting. They also staged a nukkad natak (street play) on March 27.

Students of GCG performed a nukkad natak titled Ab Karlo Tayaari, Ab Hai Matdan Ki Baari.

Shikha Raghav, a political science student and the president of GCG students’ union, says, “Gurugram mein voting percentage kafi kam hoti hai. Youngsters are not motivated to vote; unhe lagta hai change toh hone wala hai nahi. They don’t realise the power of their vote. We hope the percentage increases as we have worked really hard [to spread awareness]. If we don’t vote, we aren’t taking full advantage of the right that is being given to us. We have the power, and need to make use of it. Even one vote can change everything.”

Interact with the author on Twitter/@Nainaarora8

First Published: Mar 28, 2019 16:35 IST