Launching Jaagte Raho! campaign in Bangalore

(This post of mine has been reproduced from an entry on iJanaagraha blog)

As the memory of our massive national campaign for Lok Sabha 2009 elections fades into the past, we are all set to rollout an even more intense effort to mobilize electoral participation in urban India – the Jaagte Raho! campaign.

Jaagte Raho! is a long term Janaagraha initiative that inspires values of active citizenship in urban India by bringing out the vote for local, state and union elections; and by promoting participation in neighbourhood areas. The campaign aims to redefine patterns of electoral engagement (voter registration and voter turnout) in 10 cities over the next 5 years, thereby creating a successful model for the rest of urban India.

The first step in this journey were taken on the evening of 15th December when Jaagte Raho! was launched in Bangalore. This couldn’t have happened at a better occasion – a few months prior to the all important local elections in Bangalore!

Bangalore is perhaps the most ill-fated mega city in India – the only one with no elected body at the local level for over 3 years now! Given the importance of local governance in our day to day lives, it is almost a miracle that Bangalore has survived over the past 3 years. But that doesn’t mean much for a city that craves to create a global reputation for itself.

Clearly then, the upcoming BBMP elections present a historic opportunity for the residents of Bangalore to put the life back into its day-to-day governance. But do all of us recognize this as an opportunity? Do majority of Bangaloreans even acknowledge the prominence of local governance in their day-to-day lives? If even some of us do, what are we doing jointly to ensure that we don’t miss out on this opportunity?

These questions have shaped the immediate strategy of Jaagte Raho! campaign in Bangalore. Over the next 3 months, Jaagte Raho! will rollout an intensive awareness and mobilization drive to unite all Bangaloreans in the task of ensuring maximum participation in BBMP elections. At the center of action will be the unique grassroots volunteering position created by this campaign – Area Voter Mitra.

Area Voter Mitras provide local leadership in improving electoral engagement within their polling booth areas (about 1000 voters). They are identified and trained by Janaagraha, and work on the field in close coordination with Janaagraha. However, the uniqueness of being an Area Voter Mitra comes from the fact that they receive formal support from Election Commission of India (ECI) to clean up their voter lists.

The challenge therefore that confronts the Jaagte Raho! campaign is the mobilization of enough Area Voter Mitras to cover all 5000+ polling booths covering BBMP area, within a short span of 2 months. This is where we need all stakeholders of Bangalore – individuals and institutions (RWAs, NGOs, Colleges and Companies) to come forward and commit their energies towards better local governance by joining this campaign.

Launching a campaign like Jaagte Raho! has been possible only after months of preparation and planning. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Chunk of the effort clearly lies ahead of us, the outcomes of which will possibly determine the quality of local governance in Bangalore for the next several years!