Post-grad counted as an “illiterate”

The cerebral palsy patient wheeled herself into the polling room, but unable to hold a pen in her unsteady hands,
gave her thumb impression on the voters’ register.

When a bunch of thoughtful voters bodily lifted Jasmina Khanna’s wheelchair over three stairs that stood in her way to the rampless polling booth in a Lokhandwala school, she thought casting her vote would be hassle free.

The 38-year-old cerebral palsy patient wheeled herself into the polling room, but unable to hold a pen in her unsteady hands, gave her thumb impression on the voters’ register. For that, Khanna, a post-graduate in Sociology, was counted as an “illiterate”. “When I protested, the officer asked me not to make a fuss,” Khanna told DNA.

Complaints of “insensitive” polling staff poured in from senior citizens and those nursing injuries. Despite a fractured left leg and arm, sister Venita Fernandes reached her polling centre at Walkeshwar at 7.30 am. Yet, the 44-year-old social worker had to wait for over 30 minutes as the building did not have an elevator to take her wheelchair to the first-floor polling booth. Neither the polling staff, nor the police helped her. Finally, other voters carried her wheelchair.

It was to avoid such insensitivity that the Supreme Court, in its 2007 judgment, directed the election commission to make polling booths disabled-friendly, and ordered training and sensitisation of polling staff. “Though makeshift ramps were provided at most booths, the polling staff were not trained to help,”said Nilesh Singit, a disabled rights activist.

After harrowing experiences in earlier elections, Singit, who uses crutches, this time took along two helpers to carry him to the first-floor polling booth in a Matunga school. However, in Jogeshwari, Shruti Kamat, a first-time deaf and mute voter, had a pleasant surprise. Anjali Kant, the polling centre’s presiding officer, happened to be an audiologist, and gave her instructions in sign language. “It was sheer chance that I was able to help the girl,” Kant said.

Inputs by Kiran Tare and Ashutosh Shukla.
DNA