Civics class in soundbites

Civics has always been the colourless stepchild of the social studies family, eclipsed by the natural wonders of geography and the narrative power of history, and few of us were excited by what appeared to be a jumble of difficult-to-remember Acts and Bills and rules and regulations. “We want each one of you to know and understand the power of the vote,” says Rakesh Dubbudu in the trailer to Every Vote Matters, a podcast series produced by the young platform Suno India in collaboration with Dubbudu’s public information and data journalism portal, Factly. Conversations Working with her two colleagues in Suno India and supported by Factly’s research, Padma Priya scripts and hosts EVM, which goes into such basic questions as “How do you register to vote?” as well as more complex matters like “What is the purpose of NOTA?” and “How does campaign funding work?” Padma Priya says the show “hopes to break down the electoral process” and open up conversations with young people about democracy and voting. “It’s not an easy topic to tackle in a podcast format,” says Padma Priya, noting that much of the information is available in the public domain from a variety of sources. “The idea is to make contextualised programmes that are hyper-local, reaching groups who tend to be left out of mainstream media’s reach,” he explains.