With “catch them young” as its mantra, the Election Commission is now embarking on ‘Edutainment’ — education-cum-entertainment — to spread electoral awareness. In collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the EC — under its SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education & Electoral Participation) project — is now in the process of rolling out ‘edutainment’ material to drive home the message about voter enrollment and other electoral processes. The ‘edutainment’ kit includes a video game called “Get Set Vote”. Available in English and Hindi, the game offers 10-levels and deals with basic information about electoral processes. The EC plans to send this game to schools across the country. There are also plans to use the existing e-kiosks to enable people to access it, EC officials said. Board-games called “Vote ki Baazi”, modelled on snakes and ladders, and “Ready Steady Vote”, a version of ludo, have also been developed. In addition, the EC has come up with a comic strip called “Wah Election Wah” which it plans to get published as a series in various newspapers, magazines and journals. The strip will also be compiled as a booklet, officials said. Picture books called “Proud to be a Voter” in English and “Garv se bane Matdata” in Hindi, have also been prepared as part of the ‘edutainment’ material. A radio drama called Loktantra Express has be produced. The radio drama is about a variety of people boarding a train and talking about electoral issues. An animation film called “Masti, Dosti, Matdaan” using comic characters also forms a part of the ‘edutainment’ kit. EC officials said the material is being dispatched to schools, colleges, youth clubs, aanganwadis and Self Help Groups. “The ideas is to catch them young and put them on track of electoral registration and voting,” an EC official said. “Election related information is usually seen as dry, routine and legal. With this ‘Edutainment’ kit, we want to make it intelligible and interesting for people,” EC Director General Akshay Rout told The Indian Express. “Over a period of time, we would like this material to be converted into regional languages. It will result in continuous electoral education even when the polls are not happening,” Rout added.
