New Delhi: In a first, as a “goodwill gesture” and to encourage more women voters to come out and exercise their right to vote, Election Commission of India has decided to give sanitary pads at the selected polling booths in Mumbai during the phase 4 polling on April 29. Talking about the initiative, an Election Commission official said,
‘Vote and get sanitary pads’, the Election Commission of India has decided to exercise this initiative at some of the “Sakhi matdan kendras”, the polling booths that are entirely managed by women in order to motivate women voter to come out and cast their vote. Every women voter coming to these polling booths will be given a pack of the sanitary napkin as a goodwill gesture.
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In total, “Sakhi matdan kendras”, has been set up in all 26 Assembly segments of suburban Mumbai, which consists of three administrative subdivisions – Kurla, Andheri, and Borivali.
Apart from sanitary napkins, to make these booths more attractive, the arrangement of cold drinks, rangoli, and other art forms have also been made.
As per the Election Commission’s directive, this time around 300 polling booths entirely managed by women is set up across all 288 Assembly segments in the state for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. In the last three phases of the 2019 general elections, the EC had setup pink décor polling booths in a bid to showcase the abilities and engender a sense of women empowerment.
With inputs from PTI
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
