NATIONAL VOTERS' DAY!

On January 25, 1950, the Election Commission of India was established as an autonomous, quasi-judiciary constitutional body of India under the provisions of Article 324 of the Constitution of India. Now, from 2011 onwards, January 25 will be celebrated as National Voters' Day. 

In order to encourage more young voters to take part in the political process, Government of India has decided to celebrate January 25 every year as 'National Voters' Day' (Hindi: राष्ट्रीय मतदाता दिवस)

A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved a Law Ministry proposal to this effect.

New voters, who have attained the age of 18 years, were showing less interest in getting enrolled in the electoral rolls; the level of their enrolment was as low as 20 to 25 per cent in certain cases.

"In order to effectively deal with this problem, the Election Commission has decided to take up a vigorous exercise to identify all eligible voters attaining the age of 18 years as on January one every year in each of the 8.5 lakh polling stations across the country," Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Ambika Soni said.

Such eligible voters would be enrolled on time and handed over their Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) on January 25 every year, Ambika Soni said, adding this initiative is expected to give the youth a sense of empowerment, pride and inspire them to exercise their franchise.

The new voters would be provided with a badge with its logo "Proud to be a voter - Ready to vote", she said.

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"Greater participation for a stronger democracy."

With the theme, Ethical Voting, the 4th National Voters' Day was celebrated in Guwahati on the 25th of January, 2014 at Rabindra Bhawan in the presence of HE, The Governor of Assam, Shri Janki Ballav Patnaik, the Chief Secretary, Shri Jitesh Khosla, the Chief Electoral Officer, Assam, Shri Vijeyandra and the Deputy Commissioner (Kamrup), Shri Ashutosh Agnihotri.

The National Voters' Day Pledge was read out by all present.

“We, the citizens of India, having abiding faith in democracy, hereby pledge to uphold the democratic traditions of our country and the dignity of free, fair and peaceful elections, and to vote in every election fearlessly and without being influenced by considerations of religion, race, caste, community, language or any inducement”

The ceremonious unveiling of the EPIC or the Elector's Photo Identity card was done by HE, the Governor and handed over to actors Nishita Goswami, Kopil Bora and a young college student, Himadri Kalita.

National Voters' Day has surely turned out to be momentous thereby bringing home the point that to ensure democratic government of the people, for the people and by the people one needs to understand Vote is our Right and  Might. Certainly the message from the Commission is loud and clear: it will not relent until every single eligible voter is able to- and is willing to- vote.