Report on the Political Awareness
Programme on 29 January 2023
Elections to the Karnataka Assembly are due in April/May 2023 and to the Lok Sabha in May 2024. Given the present situation, it is important to create awareness among Christians regarding the importance of getting enrolled in the Voters' List and coming out to vote at the election booths. To create this awareness, the National Issues & Ecumenical Relations Committee(NIERC) of St.Mark's Cathedral, in collaboration with the Minority Rights & Political Concerns and the Youth Concerns Committees of KCD organized a talk by Mr.Elisha Andrews on Sunday 29 January in the auditorium of St.Mark's Cathedral.
The meeting commenced with a prayer by Rev. Solomon Devakumar, Asst. Presbyter, St.Mark's Cathedral. Mr.M.Jebakumar, PC member and Convenor, NIERC welcomed the speaker, the dignitaries on the dais, and the gathering. Rev.Immanuel Nehemiah, Director for Youth Concerns under the Nurture & Witness Committee, KCD gave an overview of the current political scenario. He expounded that while spiritual and social concerns are important, Christians should also have political concerns.
Mr. David Pichamuthu, member of the NIERC introduced the topic of the event and said that this committee has been doing such programmes before every important election. The concern is the poor voter turnout, particularly in urban areas. This can be addressed by getting all eligible voters registered and then persuading them to go out on polling to the polling booths. In this connection special attention should be paid to enrol youth who have crossed the age of 18 after the last elections.
The speaker, Mr.Elisha Andrews KAS was introduced to the audience by Mr.Sam Mohan, member of the NIERC. Mr. Elisha Andrews has worked in various departments of the Karnataka Government such as Urban Development, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure & Development Corporation, as Chief Administrative Officer, Bangalore Medical College, Under Secretary to the Chief Minister, etc. But the posting most relevant to today's topic was his stint as the Asst.Commissioner, Elections in the Office of the Chief Election Officer of Karnataka.
The speaker then gave a masterly talk and covered the following areas:
- Systematic Voter Education & Electoral Participation(SVEEP). The aim of SVEEP campaign is to address the twin issues of gaps in voter registration and the declining trend in voter turnout.
- Voter education - there is a dire need for responsive people to occupy seats of political power and be our mouthpieces. Elections are held to various posts such as (a) Corporators in cities, (b) Panchayats(gram, taluk, and zilla) in rural areas, (c) MLAs, and (d) MPs.
- Enrollment for these posts is of one type. Another type is the enrollment for participation in MLC elections, including Graduates' and Teachers' constituencies. While the electoral rolls in the first case is permanent and only revisions are carried out from time to time, in the latter, the electoral rolls are destroyed after every election. Fresh rolls are prepared before every subsequent election.The other difference is that the elections for MLCs are held once in 6 years and they are due next year.
- To achieve our objectives, we need to have short, medium, and long term goals. The short term goal is the voter registration drive which will also include locating names in the Electoral Rolls. The speaker then showed by a live demonstration, projecting the Election Commission's portal, on how to locate one's name in the rolls and also how to register.
The medium term goal is to get those holding degree/diploma/ITI certificates into the Graduates' Voters Roll and teachers into the Teachers' Voter Roll.
The long term objective is to get all eligible voters to the polling booths to exercise their political right.
This was followed by a lively Question and Answer session. All queries and doubts raised by the audience were satisfactorily answered by the speaker. 5 persons responded to his call for volunteers to take the movement forward.
Vote of Thanks was proposed by Rev.Tabitha, the Director, Minority Rights & Political Concerns Committee of KCD.
The function came to a close with a prayer and benediction by Rev.Dr.Vincent Vinod Kumar, Secretary of KCD and Presbyter-in-Charge, St.Mark's Cathedral.
