Be aware of your voting options
Ritika Verma speaks to a young Bandra boy who is giving Mumbaiites an electronic medium to be clear about their electoral representatives….Ritika Verma
Ritika Verma speaks to a young Bandra boy who is giving Mumbaiites an electronic medium to be clear about their electoral representatives….Ritika Verma
Vivek Gilani, a young Bandraite, who cares about our voting system and rights has started a website www.mumbaivotes.com for the residents of the city to be able to make a well thought of choice about their electoral representative. He is currently working for Malcolm Pirnie as an environment journalist on carbon footprint projects.
When asked about the website he said, It has the goal of creating an informed voter because of the deeply affirmed belief that a democracy is where people vote but an evolved democracy is one where people vote with their path illuminated by information. The purpose is to abolish the shield behind which a lot of people in Mumbai hide behind. Very often people exclaim that I didnt vote because I didnt know about the candidate. Heres the place which will provide them with the information and thus enable them to take the responsibility of choosing the right electoral representative and about their surroundings.
When asked about the website he said, It has the goal of creating an informed voter because of the deeply affirmed belief that a democracy is where people vote but an evolved democracy is one where people vote with their path illuminated by information. The purpose is to abolish the shield behind which a lot of people in Mumbai hide behind. Very often people exclaim that I didnt vote because I didnt know about the candidate. Heres the place which will provide them with the information and thus enable them to take the responsibility of choosing the right electoral representative and about their surroundings.
What is the goal of the website? He smiled and said, Goal is to ultimately provide a tool so that the next time one goes to vote they can make an informed choice.
He enthusiastically added, The website seeks to give reliable information of the political characteristics of your local elective representative. It seeks to distill vast spectrum of information that exists and is reported regularly by media and in an objective manner comes up in a qualitative way trying to provide a basis for comparing the political character of various elective representatives.
The website tries to survey the entire landscape of political information through these three distinct sources. One, the newspapers and internet related articles appearing related to the representative. Two, Interviews of the local resident who are directly affected intimately on a day to day basis of Elective representative. Third, mining criminal record information currently existing wih the law and order information agencies. Using a benchmark, which; is transparent and easily accessible to the users of the website. Using the criteria the information is quantified and converted ie a point system. It would be reduced to a practical usable grading which can be used as a tool for making an informed choice.
He answered zealously about the data accumulation process.
He also participated at Satyagrahs being held in Bandra and Borivli. What made him interested in these social activist events?
He smiled and said, I was intrigued and enamored by the idea of local residents taking responsibility for the conditions of the local environment and empowering themselves without seeking the endorsement of the government machinery around them to intervene and create a better world.
His final words for his work were, Mumbai Votes doesnt seek to replace the currently existing methods and practices but supplement that array of tools with one of acute accuracy.