January 25: Second National Voters Day Celebrated

The second National Voters’ Day (NVD) celebrated at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, a practice that was started in 2011 to co-occur with the foundation day of the Election Commission of India and also to raise the engagement of the voters, particularly the youth, in the democratic process.

• The Chief guest former President of India Dr. Kalam also gave away National Awards to four District Electoral Officers (DEO’s)/ Superintendents of Police (SP’s), namely, Shri Mayur Maheshwari, DEO, Ramabai Nagar (U.P.), Shri Prabhav Kumar, SP, Bankura (WB), Shri Amit Singla, DEO, North-west Delhi, and Smt. S. Sangeetha, RDO, Trichy West R.O. (TN) for adopting “Best Electoral Practices”.
• The Chief Guest Dr. Kalam spatted the work of ECI in leading free and fair elections throughout the nation. He also emphasized that the spring chickens are the “vibrant partners” of democracy.

Objectives of National Voters Day:

• The ECI’s aim behind National Voters’ Day is to enhance registration of voters, particularly of the spring chickens, by using this social occasion to make Universal Adult Suffrage a complete reality, and thus increase the worth of Indian democracy.
• The day is also utilised to extend consciousness amid voters concerning effectual partaking in the electoral process. As per the reports of Voters’ enrolment, about 3.83 crore new enrolments have been done all through the nation, out of which 1.11 crore are in the age group 18-19 as on 01st January, 2012, which was the qualifying date. In 2011, 52 lakh young voters, who had hit the age of 18 years, had been registered which set the largest empowerment of youth on a single day anywhere in the world.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2012