By Amika for MYCITYNEWS

Pune: The Jalgaon District Administration, which is going all out to create awareness among voters regarding exercising their voting rights, has taken another initiative which is said to be the first of its kind in the country.

This time, the Jalgaon District Administration led by its flamboyant District Collector Ayush Prasad has made a video highlighting the process of making Jalgaon's favourite dish of ''Vaghayncha Bharit" or ''Baingan Ka Bharta.''

While trying to understand the process of making the ''bharit,'' a culinary delight made from brinjals, Mr Prasad similarly explains to the women Self Help Group members the easy process available to cast their votes. 

Mr Prasad spend quite sometime understanding the entire procedure of making the ''bharit.'' And then he explains to the women that the voting process is also similar. He explains to them the importance of each vote cast. 

The district administration which has prepared a video of Mr Prasad visit to an eatery run by the women self help group members said the video has gone viral in Jalgaon and beyond.

The Jalgaon district administration said they moved into action after they found that women in urban areas were not resonating with the direct messaging techniques regarding voter awareness. “So we tried ‘product placement. In this product placement, we interspersed the awareness about the voting process, the identity documents and the facilities at polling station,” said Yuvraj Patil, Jalgaon Information Officer.

To reverse this trend, Jalgaon district has focussed on the registration of women voters in the last one year.

The initiative assumes significance in view of the low voter turnout in Jalgaon and Raver that registered 59 per cent and 61 per cent respectively in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, officials said.

''Bharit is a popular among citizens residents of Jalgaon. So we made use of the culinary delight to woo the voters to the polling booths,'' the district collector said.