ELECTION APP FOR CHILDREN

In an attempt to create basic awareness about Indian politics and elections among children, Smartur, a start-up in the space of digital content solutions for schools and students, today unveiled an online initiative 'ABC of 2014 Elections'. The initiative uses a four-stage infotainment process - fun election contest, fun facts, fun PM test and children's manifesto – to generate interest in children to learn the topic, a company statement said. ABC of 2014 Elections on www.smartur.com is designed for children aged 12-16 years. Children can make the 3D augmented images of NaMo (Narendra Modi), AK (Arvind Kejriwal) and RG (Rahul Gandhi) do a variety of tasks and vote their performances. Children can also voice out their demands in the form of Children's Manifesto, it said. Today's children are tomorrow's voters but traditionally in India, the education system as well as elders don't focus on educating them about basic politics and the election process. While the grown-ups invariably read, hear and discuss politics in the election season, children are not considered an audience at all even though they will be ready to vote in just a matter of few years, the company said. "India is a young country but the focus of creating awareness has always been on the existing voter base. In this traditional approach, we tend to miss out on our future citizens who may not vote this election season but they would comprise the most attractive 'first time voter' segment next time around. "This initiative is our attempt to make the political and election system more inclusive for the younger lot who can be made aware about elections in a fun and entertaining manner," said Neeraj Jewalkar, founder of www.smartur.com. Keeping this gap in mind, Smartur has created this platform which is an exciting mix of fun and education. Under this, children can start learning the basics of Indian politics and election system by taking a simple quiz which is called Fun Election Contest. The next section is Fun Facts which is a compilation of visually appealing info-graphics about NaMo, AK and RG that chronicles their journey in politics. The future voters also get to rate the future PM candidates under the Fun PM Test where 3D augmented images of these leaders can be beamed on any surface through a web cam. Once these 3D images are projected, kids can make them do a variety of tasks like making them dance in "Gangnam" style, exercise and lift heavy weights, dance to bhangra etc. At the end of the tasks, children can vote on scale of 10 for the performances of the PM candidates.