Wheelchair ramps, Braille voting for polls

During the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when Nilesh Singit entered a Matunga polling station on a wheelchair to cast his vote, only to discover that the polling booth was on the building’s first floor.

During the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when Nilesh Singit, an activist working for the rights of differently-abled persons, entered a Matunga polling station on a wheelchair to cast his vote, only to discover that the polling booth was located on the building’s first floor. And the building did not have an elevator. Determined to exercise his franchise anyway, Singit had his friends carry him up the flight of stairs. For the forthcoming 2009 elections, Singit and several other differently-abled persons hope to have barrier-free access to polling stations. Armed with an April 2004 Supreme Court (SC) order directing the Election Commission to ensure that all polling stations have ramps, and electronic voting machines (EVMs) are equipped with Braille signs, activists are gearing up to ensure that the order is implemented during the 2009 elections.

“Despite the SC order, differently-abled voters have had harrowing experiences during state elections,” Nilesh Singit said while speaking at a national seminar on voting rights for the differently-abled in Mumbai Central on Saturday. He said that exercising the right to vote in the world’s largest democracy is a test of will and dignity for the physically-challenged. He added that India should consider alternate voting methods, like postal ballots. The SC order had also directed the Election Commission to ensure that differently-abled persons are not made to stand in general queues at polling booths; that visually-impaired persons are allowed to take a companion into the booth, and election officers are adequately sensitised.

Advocate Mihir Desai said that activists need to monitor the compliance of the SC order at the state level to ensure a barrier-free voting environment. Addressing the 60 participants from across the country, Desai said that they could get more information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on the steps taken by the Election Commission to implement the order. Advocate Mallika Iyer pointed out that countries like the UK and Canada provide options like tactile voting for sight-impaired persons who do not know Braille. They provide specified parking areas for the differently-abled at polling stations, low-level polling booths, large-print ballot papers for persons with low-vision and even appoint differently-abled persons as election observers.

Narrating a story about how he forced poll officials to allow his car into a booth so that he could wheel in his wheelchair, architect Atul Desai said, “We must be prepared to fight for our rights.”

m_anshika@dnainida.net
DNA Newspaper, Mumbai
21 September 2008