Lucknow, March 21 (IANS): School children in Uttar Pradesh will soon be writing to their parents saying, "My future is linked with a strong democracy of the country and for this I would like you to pledge to check your names in the voter list and surely vote in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls."

This is the initiative of the Election Commission (EC) under which the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer, Navdeep Rinwa, has roped in the district administration and the Education department to go all out to increase the voter turnout so as to bring it on a par with the national average.

The measure is part of EC's SVEEP (Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation) initiative, officials said.

The office of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer has written to the Director General (school education) seeking help of school children of Uttar Pradesh in writing letters to their parents.

Parents will also be requested to sign a "pledge letter" to ensure that they and all eligible members of their family use their right to vote in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Both parents would sign the pledge letter providing their address, mobile number and e-mail id.

Pratap Singh Baghel, Director, Uttar Pradesh Basic Education, has sent a letter to all basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) to download soft copies of comics, which are a relevant and irreplaceable outreach medium, even in this age of digital media.

The initiative also has a 'comic touch' with characters like Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu, being used to convey election-related information creatively, officials added.

They will be used to motivate all 1.9 crore school children associated with the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Department in writing moving letters to their parents to participate enthusiastically in the electoral process.

With a significant following among children and teenagers, this medium enables the EC to effectively engage with the youth, fostering a sense of informed and responsible citizenship from an early age, officials said.

The initiative is important because Uttar Pradesh has been falling short of the national average for successive general elections.

In 2019, Uttar Pradesh's poll percentage was 59.21 per cent as against the national average of 67.4 per cent.

Similarly in 2014, voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh was 58.44 per cent against the country's average of 66.44 per cent.