‘Pammi Aunty’ to spice up voter enrolment drive

HOSHAIRPUR: To motivate young adults in Hoshiarpur to enrol as voters, the district administration has decided to fall back on some good-old Punjabi humour. As part of the Election Commission of India's systematic voters' education and electoral participation (SVEEP) programme, the district administration has roped in comic Pammi Aunty, aka Ssumier Pasricha, whose short, humorous video clips are a hit on YouTube.
‘Pammi Aunty' gives the message of voter enrolment in an interesting phone conversation with her friend ‘Shano Bhenji'.The video is an example of Pasricha's comical acts that have attracted lakhs of hits on YouTube. "The character is hugely popular among youth, so we thought that nothing can attract them better than a message by this comic sensation," said Hoshiarpur deputy commissioner Anindita Mitra.
In the 63-second video, Pammi Aunty, on receiving a call from her Hoshiarpur-based friend Shano Bhenji, compliments her on her daughter's birthday and then urges her to give her a novel gift – a voter ID card. She also conveys the options available to her friend's daughter and the October 7 deadline for registration of new voters. "Yesterday, I received this message through WhatsApp, and found it very interesting and could not share resisting it further," said Manav Sehgal, a college student in Hoshiarpur. The video was uploaded on social media on Monday and it is spreading fast in the district.
Pasricha created the character of Pammi Aunty, a typical Punjabi woman who talks to her friend ‘Sarla Bhenji' and takes digs at her daughter-in-law. "The idea to engage a popular character struck, as we have been focussing on enrolling young voters and have gone to 46 colleges of the district. The Patiala Foundation, which also helped in starting ‘iSewa' project in the district, then helped us in tying up with Pasricha and working out the idea. ," said Mitra.
Mitra said that there were around 57,000 youngsters in the 18-19 age group as per the Census, but only 5,700 were registered as voters. "After concerted efforts, we have already enrolled 10,000 more voters from this age group. With this message spreading fast, we hope to get a quicker response from them as the online registration option has also been displayed and conveyed to them," she said.
"Apart from uploading the messages on Facebook, we sent it through WhatsApp to campus ambassadors in all 46 colleges who started spreading it further to fellow students," Mitra said.
Before 2014 parliamentary elections also, Hoshiarpur administration had adopted a fresh approach to encourage young voters to exercise their franchise. Two government officials — then Mukerian sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) and now Hoshiapur additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Rahul Chaba and then trainee IAS officer assistant commissioner Vineet — had made singers croon song ‘Mein Taan Pauni Vote Ve Sajjna, Na Mein Mitran Daaru Peeni Na Mein Laine Note'. The song was released in April 2014 and was played through publicity vans.
The song was penned by Chaba. It not only urged the voters to go and cast their votes, but also raise their voice against the use of liquor or money for wooing voters.