THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Oct 28: Jharkhand state Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar’s coinage ‘Mummy Papa VoteDo’ has taken the schoolchildren by storm. They are too happy to find themselves in a position where they are to ask or task their parents to go to the booth and cast a vote. They rejoice at their becoming a neo-task Master.
They say they are the little guardians of their ageing parents, albeit for some days.
Role reversal: Children taking charge
The Jharkhand Story correspondent spoke to a bunch of school-going boys and girls today to find out if they are aware of this homely and passionate coinage Mummy Papa VoteDO.
“We know this coinage. We know it is our day today. It’s a role reverse now,” several boys and girls said.
How? How do you say it’s a role reversal? The answer that the bunch of boys and girls gave was spectacular and outstanding.
“Every day our parents ask us to go to school. Today we will be asking our parents to go to polling booth to cast votes”, they said.
Again, asked if the parents sulked at home and abstained from voting slated for November 13 here in Palamu, the school children said in a somewhat threatening tone, “We will be reminding them every half an hour for their voting. We don’t think our parents will disappoint us. When we go to school the next day, we will exchange our feelings with our classmates.”
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The children were happy to know November 13, the day of polling, will be a state holiday. Similarly, November 20 will be another holiday for constituencies to poll on this day.
Personal stories fuelling passion
This correspondent was in for a sudden shock when a class 9 girl student said with tears in her eyes, “I lost my Pa in the Covid pandemic of 2021. I will accompany my mother on the day of the polling. My mother is very conscious about this voting.”
A bystander there on the Mahila College road who was listening to the question-answer session of the bunch of boys and girls with The Jharkhand Story had this apt comment to make, “If a fatherless girl is so passionate about her mother’s voting, there is no doubt voting percentage will be all high this Vidhan Sabha election.”
Boosting voter turnout efforts
The one-liner Mummy Papa VoteDo floated by the CEO Jharkhand K Ravi Kumar is an instant catchword here.
Nodal officer of SVEEP Md Jawed Hussain said, “School students of both genders right from middle school to plus 2 are excited about this Mummy Papa VoteDo.”
Jawed said, “We have a booth at Gogar under the Panki assembly constituency. Here in this last Lok Sabha election polling percentage was just in single digit.”
“We have focused on this Gogar booth. Here school children are lending us a big hand. If school children of extreme cut-off areas are so warm to our SVEEP shows, we hope to fare well in matters of a high percentage of voting,” added Jawed.
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