New Delhi, Nov 20 (PTI) Noting that information gap has often proved "quite costly" in fair conduct of elections, Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi on Sunday said a fusion of education and entertainment would be used to increase voter turnout and encourage ethical voting in coming assembly polls.
"In my business of conduct of elections, information gap has proved quite costly in terms of citizen participative democracy and also rule of law in democratic electoral process," he said.
According to the CEC, "Edutainment" is the best response of present times for making cognitive, physical, emotional and social development faster and smoother.
"There is a new attitude about leisure in the new knowledge society. People want it for personal enrichment and do not want it to be purposeless. The same citizens would also not like to plough for knowledge in a dreary and dry land; they would like it to be a pleasurable experience," he said delivering the valedictory address at the 5th International Entertainment Conference.
He said, in Jharkhand EC decided to unleash its first serious effort at voters' education to raise the very low levels of participation in elections by turning to folk entertainment.
Several hundreds of folk artists were organised into song and dance troupes in the most entertaining formats, who travelled the length and breadth of the sate giving performances that carried messages of electoral participation.
"They attracted the community, received their attention and we got the highest turnout of voters," Quraishi said.
The EC made an even more extensive use of folk groups and street-plays in the Bihar assembly elections which resulted in a major upswing in women's turnout.
Learning from its experience, the EC has decided to make entertainment based education as a definite component of its strategies.
"In the coming series of state elections, we will engage this method to the hilt for enhancing voter turnout. We will also use this every time for achieving registration of all eligible citizens on the rolls," he said.
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