Page 139 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

Chapter 4hapter 6
The Grandest Festival of Democracy C

superintending elections, a series of statutory amendments third time in a row in that voters' participation had failed
and technological innovations further strengthened its to breach 60 percent mark in general elections to Lok
hands. This, however, did not address the problem of low to Sabha. Later, in the same year, the Election Commission
average voters' turnout in the elections. Once attributed to decided to develop a persuasive module to boost
India's low literacy rate, electoral participation did electoral participation.
not recognisably improve in sync with India's rising
Since then, the institution has pursued a methodical and
literacy graph.
perennial programme aimed at voter education,
Election Commission adopted a new approach in the motivation and facilitation popularly known by the
aftermath of the Fifteenth General Elections, 2009 that acronym SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and
witnessed a sub-60 percent (58.21%) voting. It was the Electoral Participation). It extended the sphere of
Election Commission's activities from ‘enforcement’ to
‘electoral participation’. The officers now required a
“
So far as the Constitution and electoral law are
distinct social orientation and collaborative approach to
concerned, we have made the most liberal provision in
deliver on its mission.
order to usher in a modern democratic republic, broad-
based on universal adult suffrage. So far, again, as the
executive machinery for carrying through the
complicated business of elections on such a vast scale is
concerned, we have made and are still making
stupendous preparations to ensure fair and free elections
throughout the land under conditions which will enable
the average voters, man or woman, to exercise his or her
vote without fear.
Aer all this has been said, and done, however, it cannot
be gainsaid that we have done very little so far to educate
our voters in the fundamentals of the democratic system
of Government in which they are being expected to
participate actively and intelligently. It is necessary that “
this lacuna in our preparations for the ensuing general
elections should be removed and that the vast mass of
our electors, who are the people and the nation in the
ultimate analysis, should be made to understand what all
this is about and what role they are to play in this
stupendous undertaking.
Sukumar Sen
First Chief Election Commissioner of India (1950-58)
Speech on All India Radio, August 10, 1951
Cultural campaign for voter awareness by school children, Puducherry

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