New Delhi: They are based in the United States, but haven’t forgotten their commitment towards India and its democratic spirit. A group of technocrats and scientists in the United States got together last week to launch Bharat Votes, a website aimed at creating voting awareness among the educated middle-class Indians and engaging them in mainstream democracy.
For Bharat Votes’ co-founders Saurabh Saksena, Mayur Jain, Dnyanesh Naik, Mohd. Haris, Pankaj Likhmania, and Abhishek Hundiwale, the need to educate middle-class Indians about their democratic rights is what urged them to develop a website like this.
With a tagline, “Voting is not your Right, it’s your Duty!”, Bharat Votes is attempting to reach out to a global Indian audience.
“With over 2.2 million NRIs in US, we can do a great service to our democracy by encouraging our families and friends back home to go out and vote on the Election Day. The educated Indian middle-class has often been considered insensitive to the most basic democratic right – Right to Vote. We will change this viewpoint,” Saurabh Saksena, co-founder, Bharat Votes,s aid.
For Mayur Jain, the “Pledge to Vote” campaign is a movement that has the potential to grow big with every passing day. Voting is a collective process that has to include the individual’s support system – his family, friends etc –as well.
The organization is also recruiting dynamic individuals in India to represent them at educational and professional organisations.
A one-stop-shop for all voting-related information, another co-founder Dnyanesh Naik pointed that there are several facts about voting that most people are unaware of, for example, the fact that one can still vote if he/she has left his/her native city due to work or other reasons by registering in the new city is not known to many potential voters. This is of critical importance to all the software professionals, BPO executives and other MNC employees who have to relocate to a new city for work-related reasons.
The young professionals foresee a marked shift in thinking of the educated Indian middle-class psyche.
India’s leading news website and Webby honoree ibnlive.com is partnering the website.
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