Eco-friendly Ganesha celebrations become platform for voter awareness
Mandya district administration is using the Gauri-Ganesha festival to promote voter awareness among young people through the 'Young Ganesha' initiative. The program includes distributing voter IDs and encouraging eco-friendly celebrations to engage the youth in the democratic process.
Why it matters
Integrating civic engagement with cultural festivals is a creative strategy to increase voter registration and participation among the youth.
The Mandya district administration and District Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) Committee organised a voter awareness programme under the ‘Young Ganesha’ concept, combining Gauri-Ganesha festival celebrations with a message on electoral participation.
As part of the programme, Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) were symbolically distributed to newly registered young voters following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls-2026. A rangoli highlighting SIR-2026 and various other SVEEP activities were also organised.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Kumar said it was the responsibility of everyone to celebrate the Gauri-Ganesha festival in an environment-friendly manner. He urged people to install clay idols and avoid Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols to protect the environment.
He said young voters had an important role to play in a democratic system and the ‘Young Ganesha’ initiative was aimed at creating voter awareness among them while celebrating the festival.
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