PUNE: It was a day well spent for the 10 students of Orchid School in Baner on Monday. Many students volunteered at their school’s polling booth to help voters, mainly the elderly, specially abled voters, directing them at the polling booth rooms.
These 10 students were given permission by the District Election Commission to participate in this activity.
“I was lucky to be part of the electoral process. I have been helping voters by directing them to polling booth rooms,” said Dnyanda Patil (13), a Class VIII student.
Rehaan Siddiqui, another Class VIII student said, “We cannot go inside where votes are being cast but we were allowed around the polling booth. If anybody wants to check their names in the voters’ list before going inside, I have been helping them do that,” he said.
The school administration divided students into two batches, with one batch allotted morning time and the other taking over post lunch.
Head, Administration of Orchid School, Pravin Gaikwad, said, “This was our school director’s idea. So we sought permission from the Election Commission. There were two teachers from our school who were assigned the task of volunteering with our school students,” said Head, Administration of Orchid School Gaikwad.
Explaining how being a volunteer helped them, Kushagr Dang, from Class IX, said, “We got to see so many diverse voters at the polling booth, and we were also guiding them differently.”
