Assam district goes pink to encourage women voters
A district in western Assam has gone pink to make its women vote as much as or more than men.
Nalbari is among very few districts where almost all officers are women. Apart from District Commissioner and District Election Officer Varnali Deka and Superintendent of Police Supriya Das, they include the Deputy DEO, Finance and Accounts Officer, Treasury Officer, District Information and Public Relations Officer, and District Social Welfare Officer. The majority of the Additional Deputy Commissioners, Circle Officers, and Block Development Officers are women too. So are some 300 polling personnel covering three Assembly segments of the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency.
Women in the district, however, have lagged in exercising their franchise.
“In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, our district recorded a turnout of 83.5%, higher than the State average of 81.5% and the national average of 67.18%. But the gap between men and women voters in Nalbari was wider than that at the national and State le
vels,” Ms. Deka said.
In Nalbari, 84.4% of men voted compared with 82.4% of women, a gap of 2%.
The district officers and polling personnel have been taking up various Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) activities to encourage all sections to come and cast their votes.
The campaign entailed more than 300 women polling personnel and women officers turning up in mekhela chador, the traditional Assamese attire, in various hues of pink.
They held pink placards with various SVEEP messages urging unregistered people to apply for a voter card and others to assert their rights by casting their votes. This campaign will culminate with the “manning” of 50% of the district’s urban polling stations by women.