Dr. (Mrs.) Niloufer Shroff Scientist G & HOD (EMCD) and Ms.
Tulika Pandey, Scientist F Using technology to bridge the gender
gap in Elections Department of Electronics & IT M/o
Communication & IT Electronics Niketan, New Delhi Presentation
at National Consultation on Womens participation in the Electoral
Process 19 th December 2013 at MayFair Convention Centre
Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Slide 2
First- A Big Thank You to the Election Commission I speak as a
citizen of the country and Yes as a Woman citizen too. The
Electoral Process is one of the few processes which run so
excellently in India that we dont seem to even think about it. We
just take it for granted. In the recent Delhi Elections the real
victory was of Democracy. What safeguards this while governments
rise and fall is our system of Free and Fair Elections. The
Election Commission really needs to be congratulated and thanked by
each citizen of India.
Slide 3
Using technology to bridge the gender gap in Elections 1.Women
& Elections 2.Technology & Elections 3.Technology &
Women 4.Women, Technology & Elections Organization of the
talk
Slide 4
Women and Elections This has been covered by the speakers
before me from various aspects. I will only touch upon it briefly.
Votes for Women - less than 100 years New Zealand 1893 Australia
1894 Canada 1919 UK - Suffragettes movement Women over 30 &
with property 1918 Extended to all Women over 21 in 1928 USA
1920
Slide 5
Women and Elections In India in all the elections held since
independence, women had the voting rights. However, women do face
serious social, cultural and logistical problems restricting their
full and active participation in the democratic process of
Elections. The Indian Government and civil society have been
working to promote greater participation of women in electoral
processes. a
Slide 6
Technology & Elections ICT applications in the electoral
process : a.Communications, telecommunications, radio, networks and
the Internet; b.Computer hardware and software, word
processing/spread sheets, database management systems; m-Apps for
mobiles c.Specialised electronic/mechanical devices, non-electronic
innovations and materials. Information and Communication Technology
use in the Electoral Process Information technology has the
potential to improve electoral operations - by reducing risks and
costs, enhancing transparency and convenience, both for voters and
officials managing the process.
Slide 7
Technology & Elections Role of technology in the Elections
1.Awareness Creation 2.Voter Registration 3.The Actual Process of
running the Elections 4.Electronic Voting 5.Reporting &
Auditing results
Slide 8
Technology & Elections Role of technology - Awareness
Creation Voter education activities historically through
traditional media - TV news, radio and newspapers. Popularity of
the Internet and mobile technologies now enable making election
information available online and through mobile devices, which
requires web content management capabilities. Social Media
especially Facebook, Twitter and Youtube have a role in creating
mass opinions for voting or analysis of the candidate.
Slide 9
Technology & Elections - Voter Registration AIM To securely
and accurately manage large databases of citizens Manual
Registration has proved cumbersome. Electronic registration, makes
it easier to register and vote, increases accuracy, and reduces the
risk of eligible voters being disenfranchised due to inaccurate or
incomplete voter records. Online registration has shown large
increase in Registration. The Election Commission providing Online
Voter ID Registration System for voter ID registration/status
checking, updating/deletion of voter ID data has greatly
facilitated women to get registered while sitting at home and thus
use their rights to voting. Establishing the identity of an
individual - Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) or
Facial Recognition Scanning. Deduping Voter list through fuzzy
matching techniques in Indian Languages. Photo Rolls project Shows
the photograph printed in the Voter List.
Slide 10
Technology & Elections The Actual Process of running the
Elections Paper based voting lists have significant costs for
printing and shipping. Authenticating the voter takes a lot of
time, long waiting times. Technology can enable faster voting at
any polling station. Less time required will facilitate women with
household duties to come out for voting. Votes marking
electronically through electronic voting machines, can be modified
for visually impaired voters, voters with literacy issues, or in
multiple languages. In future through remote, unsupervised voting,
which includes email, web self-service, phone/smartphone, and
Internet TV. The important issues will be security requirements and
the bandwidth availability. Networks like NOFN, SWAN could be
useful.
Slide 11
Technology & Elections The Actual Process of running the
Elections Election Commission of India since provincial assembly
elections in early 2012 has been using an SMS based alert system
called Communication Plan for Election (COMET) during the election.
The system is used for sending messages to the millions of
government officials on election duty. Many of them are women. The
COMET system "uses coded text messages through mobile phones to
collect data about officials, information about scheduled events
like staff reaching the polling station, mock polls conducted,
start of polling, voting percentages every two hours, number of
voters in after voting time was over, and whether the poll party
reached safely at the high security Electronic Voting Machine
deposit centre. The SMS system for data from the polling booth to
the control room of the election commission provides hassle free
environment to Women Presiding Officers and motivates them to take
new responsibilities in the poll booths & collection &
counting centers.
Slide 12
Technology & Elections The Actual Process of running the
Elections E-Governance Initiative of DeitY has made available
several m-Apps for different electoral processes. EVM tracking
application: For ECI Officials for scanning Barcode on Electronic
Voting Machine machines used in poll. Election Poll day Report: For
collecting information from District Election Officer about poll
progress activities. Polling Station Location: Fetches co-ordinates
(Latitude & Longitude) of a polling station through GPS enabled
android mobile phone and sends the information to ECI server.
Electoral Officers details: For collecting personal information
about the Electoral officer (Skype Id, email Id & head office
location etc). Leveraging the high mobile density in India, mobile
devices may be used as a force multiplier in enabling participation
of citizens irrespective of gender in election.
Slide 13
Technology & Elections -Electronic Voting Electronic Voting
machines- an Election commission initiative has tremendously helped
in smooth conduct of Indian elections. There are more than 1.4
million EVMs in India and efficient use of EVMs are an eye-opener
and has many takers in the many foreign delegations that came here
to observe Indian democracy in action. While most of the existing
cases of electronic voting are in the form of supervised electronic
voting machines, an increasing number of countries are adopting
remote, unsupervised electronic online voting to increase voter
participation.
Slide 14
Technology & Elections - Reporting & Auditing Results
Result consolidation Election night reporting Election audit
Technology has helped improve efficiency of post-voting process:
Increasing the speed of the vote counting process Minimizing delays
in the publication of election results Streamlining post-election
audit processes Reducing logistics costs
Slide 15
Technology and Women-ICT Status of India National e-Governance
Plan has brought the government closer to the people. Greater
openness and transparency have thus empowered the common people.
Core ICT infrastructure like SWAN, CSCs, SDC, MSDG, Payment
Gateway, eGov AppStore, mAppStore used by different Ministries /
departments for delivery of citizen centric services i.e. without
any gender discrimination. These services play an impact making
role in bridging the gender gap by delivering the government
services at the doorstep of citizens in a transparent and efficient
way. Information Technology has been combined with satellite based
communication technology to reach rural areas through initiatives
like tele-education and tele-medicine..
Slide 16
Technology and Women-Common Service Centers (CSCs) CSCs
established across the country by DeitY to Make all Government
services accessible to the common man(/woman) in his locality,
through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency,
transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs
to realize the basic needs of the common man NEED TO ADD WOMAN !!!
Front-end delivery points for Government, private and social sector
services to rural citizens Target of 1 CSC for every 6 villages
(100,000+ CSCs) 123,131 CSCs are operational across 35 States/ UTs
through BSNL, VSATS & Data Cards Bundled approach (hardware,
software and trained manpower)
Slide 17
Technology and Women -DeitY Initiatives Women Empowerment
Initiatives of DeitY Training Formal Courses: BCA, MCA Non-formal
Courses: NIELIT (O, A, CCC), Certificate Courses by DeitY
Autonomous Societies (NIELIT, C-DAC), State Govt. Undertakings /
Societies for ICT Industry Specific: ITES / BPO, Desk top
Publishing Customized: Hardware, Software, Multimedia, language
Technology, Web Designing Basic: Computer Fundamentals / Computer
Operation IT Infrastructure Development Computer labs in Schools
& Colleges Computer labs in Central & State Government
Institutions Multimedia based educational technology package
Capacity Building Empowerment of Artisans (Chanderi Madhya Pradesh)
Self Help Groups (in NER, West Bengal)
Slide 18
Technology and Women -DeitY Initiatives C-DAC - Smart Framework
for Multimedia based Learning Content Management for Womens
empowerment (EKALABYA). For spreading awareness among rural women
in vernacular languages. C-DAC Kolkata & a Domain expert in
Electoral Processes could start in Bangla & then take up NE
languages. Multimedia based content including Audio, Video, Images,
Animations and Linear presentations in CD which can be distributed
among rural women. Integrated Management Information System and
Portal Set up for Womens Empowerment, Information compilation,
Dissemination, and Self Learning, and also monitoring the
activities of Kudumbashree Mission at the State, District, &
Community Based Organization levels. The Portal provides a common
platform for education & knowledge of legal, social and
cultural aspects of Gender Empowerment.
Slide 19
Women, Technology & the Electoral Process Initiatives for
Inclusion of Women in the electoral process Schemes and Policies to
help women acquire the tools necessary to participate successfully
in all aspects of the political process. Women Electoral
participation programme training on use of tools, such as SMS,
social media and electronic voting, that could be adapted for use.
Engage women in legislatures, political parties and civil society
as leaders, activists and informed citizens. Establish secure and
easy e-Voting mechanisms. Identify technology and methods to make
voting booths mobile.
Slide 20
Women, Technology & the Electoral Process Social Media
(Television, Newspaper, Internet) to tell & to listen-a two-way
street. Mobile technology is helping to educate and allow women to
communicate in the electoral process. Giving women access to all
election related information and government advisory on their
rights and duties in the election process. The Election Commission
technology initiative of using Verified Voters Paper Audit Train
(VVPAT) machines has instilled confidence in Women voters too. The
Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) are
the newly launched initiative for awareness programs through mass
media to woo voters especially women voters. In future election
tools like IVRS (interactive voice response system) for voters with
low literacy levels. Will call instead of texting to ask if they
know the location of their polling centre and if needed would
provide it. Web Learning/E-Learning Technology to educate and
inform women contesting in Panchayat Elections and help them know
about their rights & duties through meetings and pre recorded
information dissemination especially in the rural areas.
Slide 21
Women, Technology & the Electoral Process C-DAC - Proposed
set of activities - Potential Solutions Generating Online
Tokens/Mobile Based Tokens for lesser waiting time. SMS Facility
for Informing the Location of Polling Booth and expected wait.
Online & Mobile Facility for Incorporating the Changes. After
marriage women face a lot of difficulty in changing the Election
I-Card. Development of interfacing tool for integrating UID,
Municipal Corporation Data,CBSE/State Boards Data etc.
Slide 22
Women, Technology & the Electoral Process Women are most
vulnerable when theyre disconnected. Technology usages provides
empowerment strategies. Technology is giving women information to
boost their confidence. Women now have full information about where
they are registered, their voting and polling booth location. They
know that vulnerable locations are being watched and the response
time to any untoward incident will be very quick. Technology has
enabled connecting with women and increased possibility of
providing training and other support for women candidates, voters,
campaigners and support staff. Marked increase in womens
participation in voting turnout and election campaigning too.
Slide 23
Using technology to bridge the gender gap in Elections
Slide 24
THANK YOU VERY MUCH Using technology to bridge the gender gap
in Elections