Students take up campaign work to make pocket money while colleges stay shut

P Sivakumar (21), a final year student in a government college located near the suburban area, makes at least Rs 600 per day in his part-time job related to election campaigns in Pallavaram. 

Various election-related works during the campaign include distributing pamphlets to the households, participating in the election rally with the candidates, maintaining poll expenses, meeting voters on social media, and preparing booth slips of the electorates. 

Students get regular income either on an hourly or daily basis based on their work. “I start my campaign work by 6 am along with the candidates, who would canvass door-to-door. During evenings I would take my bike and participate in the campaign,” Sivakumar told DT Next. Claiming that payment varies from party to party, he said that the range is between Rs 300 and Rs 1,000, excluding petrol and food allowance. 

A counsellor of a regional political outfit from Balaji Nagar Anakaputhur claimed that students were showing discipline in their work. “They do not demand too much money and also, most of them were teetotallers,” he said. S Selva Lakshmi, a second-year diploma student in the government polytechnic college in the city, said “I joined election campaign at Chrompet organised by women wing of a national party. My job is to explain poll promises to the electorates, which brings me Rs 600 per day.”