All You Need To Know About Sveep

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is responsible for conducting elections throughout the country. It is the responsibility of the ECI that these elections are conducted in a fair and just manner and have adhered to all the best practices and rules and regulations laid down by it.

Apart from conducting elections, the other responsibility of the ECI is voter education. It is of utmost importance that the voters of the country know their rights as well as responsibilities that define the essence of any democracy. Keeping this in mind, The Election Commission of India has launched the Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation, more commonly known as SVEEP.

SVEEP was initiated by the ECI in the year 2009 and since then has been very active in all parts of the country working to create voter awareness, promote voter education and voter literacy. It enables the voters to make an informed decision in an election and shape the future of the country.

SVEEP functions by organizing many general as well as specialized and focused involvements in the voter education based on the socio-economic, cultural and demographic sketch of a particular area or state. It also considers the previous voter participation and the trends followed in that particular area or state to frame the contents of the awareness programmes.

Objectives of SVEEP

SVEEP was formed keeping in mind certain specific objectives relating to the elections scenario in the country. These objectives are stated below.

• Creating voter awareness with respect to the importance of voting and the role of a voter in a democracy
• Encouraging maximum voter registration of the qualified voters and maximum turnout of voters on the polling dates
• Encouraging maximum voter participation in the election process and carrying out the elections in the most ethical and efficient manner.
• It also strives to build social equality of the voters and various demographics of the country.

Structure of SVEEP

The structure of SVEEP is multi dimensional. SVEEP works right from the grass root levels up to the national level in order to achieve its objectives.

1. Booth Level

The Election Commission of India announced the institution of Booth Level officers, commonly known as BLOs in 2006. These officers are generally in charge of one or two polling stations and maintenance of the overall electoral roll of these stations. However, the custodian of the electoral roll of an Assembly/ Parliamentary Constituency is the Electoral Registration Officer.

2. District Level

At this level, the administrative head of the district i.e. the institution of the District Collector plays a crucial role in the management of the elections. They are known as District Level Officers or more commonly referred to as DLOs and are responsible for implementation of SVEEP at district levels.

The committee of SVEEP at this level is formed and headed by the Chief Executive officer of the Zilla Parishad/Chief Development Officer who is mostly an Additional District Magistrate. He is in charge of supervising and implementing the programme in its true sense at the district level.

3. State Level

An officer from the State CEO office is appointed to be in charge of the SVEEP programme in the respective state. This person is given the power to form a core group at the state level that can include representatives from various aspects of life such as universities, educational institutions, youth organizations, civil society groups, etc. on a voluntary basis. The committee or group will be responsible for the functioning of SVEEP at the State Level.

4. National level

The SVEEP wing of the ECI is responsible for formulating policies, laying down the framework, planning the involvement and the implementation of the objectives and the programme. It also ensures a continuous conversation with the civil society groups, media and the voting class. The ECI has long realized the workings or the challenges in bringing out behavioral changes of the voting class, and hence has always emphasized on the social orientation and the collaborative approach in implementation of the SVEEP across the country.

SVEEP Procedure

The approach of SVEEP is categorized in two phases namely the pre-poll phase that requires the voter registration and voter education and secondly the poll phase which is the actual turnout of the voters during the elections and the process of the elections.

The procedure or functioning of SVEEP involves the following four major steps:

1. Planning

• Preparation of the National Framework proposal
• Preparation of State’s SVEEP plans based on the state-level openings
• Preparation of District’s SVEEP plans based on region-level breaches
• Drafting the monitoring, response, and assessment process
• Resource distribution
• Content creation for creative
• Datebook of events

2. Preparation

• Formation of SVEEP’s Core Committee at state and district levels
• Appointment of Nodal officers at each of such levels
• Training of the officials
• Situation analysis over assessments for the gap analysis in particular areas
• Studying the gender gap and registration gap
• Studying the turnout ratio and the gaps therein
• Studying the reasons and causes for disconnect with the youth.
• Recognizing and analyzing the units and the population that have the reduced participation and the reasons for the same.

3. Partnerships and Collaborations

• Universities of explicit states
• Additional scholastic associations
• Youth administrations
• Management subdivision
• Media companies
• Commercial houses and Public Sector Units
• Single and group helpers
• Prominent individuals at state and national levels

4. Implementation

• Design specific involvements that are targeted or catered to specific set of individuals or groups
• Involvement in order to reduce the gender gap and take measures to increase youth involvement.
• Targeted Actions to determine urban apathy and take steps to resolve it.

National Voters Day

National Voters day is an initiative that has been started by the Election Commission of India. It falls on the 25th of January, and has been celebrated every year since 2011. This initiative was started with a view to increase voter awareness and encourages them to vote in order to have maximum voter registration and turnout.

Events Organized by the SVEEP

There are many events and activities organized by the SVEEP as part of its voter awareness and encouragement initiative. Some of these events are mentioned below.

• Voting in educational institutes
• Debates on elections in India
• Music competitions, songwriting competitions and theme-based drawing competitions
• Native and traditional art competitions for rural women

These events are held at public places to encourage maximum participation and maximum reach of the objectives of SVEEP.

Voter Facilitation

Voter facilitation is a way for SVEEP to ensure an easy voting process for the voters. Some of such measures taken by SVEEP are mentioned below.

Facilitation For Registration

• The official website of ECI or the CEO’s website facilitating online registration
• SVEEP has facilitated the voters to search their name in the electoral roll and CEO’s website
• SVEEP also has SMS-based service for finding names and poll booths
• Additionally, SVEEP organizes special registration camps to ensure maximum voter registration.

Facilitation For Voter Turnout

• Extending the poll hours up to 11 hours at several places to facilitate increase in increase voting
• Setting up and providing basic facilities like drinking water, ramps, washrooms at every voting booth
• Marking well defined and separate rows for male and female voters
• Giving preference to Senior citizens and the physically challenged to vote first at the polling booths.
• Setting up model polling stations at various places that provide additional facilities and are generally of more help to the voters across all categories.

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