CHENNAI: It was 19-year-old Saravanan’s first time casting his vote in the Lok Sabha elections. The resident of Avvai Shanmugam Salai, affected with a rare muscular disability, reached his polling booth 102 at 7 am to avoid any delays and get inked at the earliest. What curbed his excitement was the school entrance, which was a muddy and gravel-laden path. This made it difficult for him to move on his wheelchair. “Not one police official or any other staff offered to help. With the help of my parents, I entered. I waited. I was later informed that there was some problem with the EVM machine and we needed to wait further,” he rues. After a delay of almost one and a half hours, Saravanan went inside the polling booth. But as the tables were not accessible, he wasn’t able to cast the vote by himself and had to seek his mother’s help.
Working towards easing the process of voting, especially for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, the Election Commission of India notified on the availability of the pick-up and drop facility for them from their residences to the polling station through the Saksham App by calling 1950 or by calling the District Control Room. Unfortunately, the services didn’t work for Saravanan. “It wasn’t reachable. My friend told me that when he tried to avail the services, they didn’t respond in a favourable way,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Sathish Kumar, a member of Disability Rights Alliance, refused to opt for the pick-up and drop option as most of the vehicles aren’t disability friendly. “It will mostly be a normal cab, it won’t have provisions to fit in a wheelchair,” he notes. Explaining in detail about the accessibility issues inside the polling booth, Sathish who voted from SIVET College, Gowrivakkam, says, “The buildings are very old and the rooms were very small, unable to accommodate wheelchairs properly. The machine is placed close to the wall; most of us weren’t able to reach the buttons as the tables weren’t accessible.”
While the ordeals for wheelchair users continued this time around too, the situation had improved for those with visual impairment. Raghuraman, assistant professor at Government Arts College for Men, Nandanam, who is visually impaired, appreciated the Election Commission for the efforts taken towards 100% voting experiences for PwDs. Affirming that there is room for improvement, he says, “All things should be done well at least a month in advance. Lack of awareness is one fault. Even the minimum standard guidelines are not followed in most of the polling booths. Some places lacked wheelchairs and ramps. EVMs should have stickers indicating the machine numbers, which confused the visually impaired. There should also be audio enabled support to ensure that voting is done through VVPATs.”
Despite the grievances, some polling booths in the city were disabled- and senior citizens-friendly with volunteers offering help. Ivan Raquinha, a 61-year-old resident who voted in Surapet, highlighted that he had a hassle-free experience. He says, “I had suffered a stroke recently and couldn’t walk without support. Hence, two volunteers brought awheelchair to the car and wheeled me in. They even took me inside the classroom with the help of a ramp. It was over in 10 minutes.”
Meanwhile, V Santhanam, a 86-year-old social activist shares that his voting experience was also smooth and the only thing he wasn’t satisfied with was how there were no seating for senior citizens. Sources also rued the lack of drinking water or toilets in some booths. While most of the senior citizens who could go on their own didn’t try the pick-up and drop facility to make way for others, a few others tried availing it but wasn’t welcomed with the promised enthusiastic spirit. Octogenarian P Bhawarlal says, “They (officials) told that only people aged 85 years and above could avail the service. So, I had to go on my own.”
Lessons for the future
To make the voting experience inclusive, Tamil Nadu’s chief election officer had also notified the District Differently Abled Welfare Office, which was eventually helpful to coordinate at district level. “However, this announcement reached the public at a much later stage that it could not properly facilitate collaborative access audits of polling stations ahead of polls or free transport services to ferry voters with disabilities to polling stations and back home,” mentions the report by Disability Rights Alliance (DRA).
“The transport service announced by CEO Tamil Nadu at the last moment was unfortunately not usable for voters with disabilities as many had tried the 1950 helpline or Saksham app which did not facilitate their transport requests. This resulted in less than 50 voters with disabilities contacting the GCC control room to access transport arrangements,” states the report.
Sudha Ramamoorthy, a member of DRA, shares that they had booked Get Going accessible vehicles for PwD for the entire day of the election, in collaboration with Vidya Sagar NGO. “We had booked two vehicles for the day and seven people had availed the services, of which six were elderly,” she says.
After observing the execution of accessible poll facilities the Disability Rights India highlights in the DRA report that adequate, updated and periodic training and dissemination of information must be available to access the request for transport and other services in the future elections. They also suggest uniform training materials and programmes be ensured to police on accessible barricades enabling vehicles of voters with disabilities to enter the polling stations. Access audit teams are to be planned from June onwards to ensure that all polling stations are retrofitted and comply with access standards and are readied for a compliance access audit by January 2025, in the lead up to the assembly elections 2026 in Tamil Nadu.
Accessible polling booths continue to be a dream for a majority. Though a lot of facilities are offered on paper, it doesn’t translate to reality. Sathish adds, “Buildings need to be accessible and officials should be more strict in terms of implementing rules.” Sudha concurs, “Focus should also be on issues like proper lighting to facilitate people with low vision and employing a sign language interpreter for assisting people with hearing impairment.”
Concluding their stories, people hope that the electoral process becomes an inclusive one soon.