TECHIES TAKE UP POLL CAUSE

With Passion To Bring In Change, They Use Flexi-Working Hours, Technology To Reach Out To Voters
Sunitha Rao R | TNN


    When thousands of Bangaloreans are yet to wake up to the graduate constituency poll on June 10, here is a group of techies campaigning to build awareness on the election among the public.
    In the 25-45 age group, these techies work for US-based, multinational companies. With technology and flexible working hours at their disposal, most of them are registering the graduates as voters, and campaigning for the candidates. Gokul Jung, a techie working on Bannerghatta Road, has developed a software through which the 1,16,000 voters can locate their polling booths and also navigate on a map to reach it. This should have been ideally done by the chief election officer.
WHAT DRIVES THEM
It’s just passion to bring in change that’s the driving force for these techies. “It’s time we plunge into politics and elect a candidate who can change this city. Besides, some of us also suffer a sense of guilt that we work in air-conditioned environs and are somewhat detached from the world outside. So I plunged into campaigning. Because I work for a US-based company, I have flexible working hours. I end up working late night and even early morning, but doing my bit for society is what drives me,” says Tara Krishnaswamy, a techie from Ulsoor.
    In fact, the list of newly added voters has already been shared by this group with NRI techies in the US, who ring up voters in Bangalore and remind them with, “Your vote is precious, exercise your franchise between 8am and 4pm on June 10!”
A DAY IN THEIR LIFE
Srinivas Alavalli, 38, has been campaigning for the election over the past three months. Along with attending to official conference calls, he manages to attend conference calls with US volunteers on how to go about poll-related work. “I’m up at 7am, I check my mail and respond to my colleagues in the US as per requirement. I drop my kids to school and reach office before 10am. My work is such that it doesn’t matter whether I am at home, office, US or Mysore, as long as I can connect to office via bandwidth and con calls. We techies work on things remotely, and in between, I keep in touch with other volunteers. Around 6pm, we head back to election work. It can be meeting a new group of residents in some apartment or meeting team members,” says Alavalli.
    The team members also attend conference calls for poll related discussions and use the con call service provided by www.sabsebolo.com. “At a time, 10 persons from different locations can converse with this service and we make use of it widely. We use social media as well to campaign for our candidate. I reach home by 10pm and attend to work-related calls, and retire only after midnight,” says Alavalli.
    But yes, these techies manage their family life too. “My six-yearold daughter is also excited about the polls too and is waiting for the election,” says Alavalli, who manages work pressure, passion as well as parental responsibilities in synchrony.
WHAT ELSE DO THEY DO?

• Manage campaign voter registrations, voter data and analysis, scripting/spreadsheets, media, printing and distribution, fundraising, voter contact and mobilization, door-to-door campaigns

• Communicate and spread the word through Google groups, Facebook, besides traditional media and methods

• Make the registered voter search available on a website so voters can verify they are registered instead of having to go physically to the booth

• End people’s frustration with voter registration and take calls about ‘general voter registration'


CIVIC CONSCIOUS: The group campaigns to create voter awareness