New Delhi: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday has said there would be “zero tolerance” to the use of children in any manner during the electoral process by political parties and candidates.
“In continuation of its earlier directives to parties and candidates to address plummeting levels of campaign discourse and to maintain respectful discourse towards Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), the Election Commission of India has issued strict directives regarding use of children in any election-related activities,” said a press statement by the poll body.
Political parties have been advised not to use children in election campaigns in any form, including distribution of posters/pamphlets or to participate in slogan shouting, campaign rallies, election meetings, among other things.
According to the ECI, the instructions for “Prohibition of Child Participation in election related activities” include: “Political leaders and candidates should not use children for campaign activities in any manner including holding a child in their arms, carrying a child in a vehicle or in rallies.”
Further, the poll body said the prohibition extended to the use of children to create the semblance of a political campaign in any manner, including use through poem, songs, spoken words, display of insignia of political party or candidate, exhibiting ideology of political party, promoting achievements of a political party or criticising the opponent political parties or candidates.
Top leaders of both Congress and the BJP have been accused of “misusing” children for political campaigns.
In September 2022, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) urged the Election Commission to initiate necessary action and inquiry into a complaint against the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly “misusing children as political tools” in the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
According to the complainant, it was alleged that “many disturbing images and videos have been circulating on social media wherein it can be seen that children are being targeted and are made to participate in their campaign with a political agenda under the slogan ‘Bharat Jodo, Bacche Jodo’,” the NCPCR said at the time.
Two months later, in November 2022, after the Prime Minister shared a video in which a girl was seen speaking about BJP’s governance in Gujarati, the Congress filed a complaint with the NCPCR — the apex child rights body — against Modi and the BJP for using children for their political campaign in the run-up to the Gujarat polls.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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