Mobile Applications: EC poll apps run into gender hurdle in Rajasthan | Rajasthan Election News

JAIPUR: Representatives of Rajasthan state election commission – who have been entrusted with making residents aware of the mobile applications launched by the Election Commission of India (ECI) – are facing resentment from sections of a few communities, who don’t want their women members to use mobile apps and social media due to the “stigma attached to it”.

This comes at a time when the state government has distributed lakhs of smartphones to women residents through the Indira Gandhi Smart Phone Yojana just before the assembly elections. “When the government distributed the cellphones to women Jan Aadhaar card holders, there were no such resentment. But when we tried to organise camps for these women to make them aware of the mobile applications and social media tools of the EC, there were resentment. In several areas, we were not allowed to make women voters aware of such applications as the males from the locality claim that such technologies are not meant for women,” alleged a member of the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) committee.
This committee had been formed to motivate the voters, especially the youth, to vote and to make them aware of the different social media tools and mobile apps launched by the EC. In Rajasthan, there are separate committees for each district to implement SVEEP. The EC has launched four apps – VHA, Saksham, C-Vigil and KYC. Each of these apps has specific features to facilitate the voters to poll.

When TOI contacted Snigdha Sharma, the district coordinator of the SVEEP committee for Jaipur, she confirmed that these allegations have been made by committee members. “Indeed, we have faced resentment while making women voters aware of the mobile applications and social media tools. I would like to make an appeal to all political parties to take up this issue during their campaigns and help us to motivate all the voters. Such social stigmas are not acceptable in 21st century,” said Sharma, who is also the principal of Government College, Jaipur. Members of SVEEP claimed that they had faced such resentment not only in the rural areas but in urban areas as well, including in localities of Jaipur.