Dhanbad district administration has decided to take the help of schoolchildren to spread awareness among voters ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

A series of events has been lined up for school students from April 1 to May 10.

On April 1, students of all 1,000 government primary, middle, high and plus two schools will take out a prabhat pheri from their respective campuses during which they will hold placards and banners carrying slogans to encourage people to cast votes.

Drawing competition, rangoli-making, essay-writing, debate, speech contest, skit, cycle rally, human chain, storytelling and plantation drive, all on the theme of elections, will be held from April 2 to 13.

From April 15 to 27, events like morning procession, sports, exhibition of scientific models, recitation of the Preamble of the Constitution, oath-taking, essay competition, youth parliament and letter-writing will be held.

A meeting of the management committees of schools, solo and group song and dance and poetry will be held from April 29 to May 4.

In the last week of the awareness drive from May 6 to 10, schoolchildren will take part in events like calligraphy contest, quiz, prabhat pheri and paying homage to martyrs.

“We have planned the events with the help of the district education department and details of the awareness programmes have been made available to every school through their respective block education extension officers,” said Dhanbad sub-divisional officer Raj Maheshwaram.

On Thursday, an awareness programme was held in Baghmara area during which Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) were displayed. Another programme was also held in Raghunathpur and Jhilugram villages in Tundi block of Dhanbad. A workshop on elections was also held for physically-challenged persons at Gandhi Seva Sadan on Court Road on Thursday.

“We are carrying out various awareness programmes across the district with the help of over 500 self-help groups,” said SDO Maheshwaram.