Motorcycle rallies, walkathons, mini marathons, designer dresses for women, nail art incentives were all used by the Jalgaon district administration along with citizen groups to boost voter turnout in the district which has been historically low. Jalgaon for the past few elections has been hovering around the 46 to 48 percent mark when it came to voter turnout and for several years it has not gone above the 50 percent mark at all.
“While rural parts of jalgaon have higher numbers we found that the voting percentage was low middle class and upper middle class. It varied from as low as 19 to 34%t. The affluent class doctors, professionals and industrialists. There was an issue to reach out to them as we don’t frequently come into contact with the government as a group, “said Ayush Prasad District Collector, Jalgaon.
Prasad then contacted the Rotary clubs, laughter clubs; industrial association groups, social organisations, met their representatives and discussed with them a need to ensure a higher turnout. “Citizens need to vote, they need to be playing their part in the democratic process. For almost two months we along with these groups have organised walkathons, mini marathons and cycle and motorcycle rallies in residential societies and other groups. This was a community bonding exercise where through these activities we focused on why a citizen should vote.” said Prasad.
While the time was short, these initiatives ensured that jalgaon registered a 7 percent jump in its voter turnout jumping from 46% in the last polls to 53% now.
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