The Rights of Individuals with Disabilities Act 2016 mandates accessibility of the electoral course of for each Indian with a incapacity. Here is a step-by-step information on the way you, or somebody , can train their voting proper.
Kavya had simply turned 19 and was excited.
Not as a result of she was older however as a result of she would train her proper to vote that yr.
Nevertheless, on polling day, she visited the sales space along with her household and her pleasure waned. The polling station was not accessible for a particular person with a incapacity. With stairs main as much as the EVMs, she questioned how she would forged her vote.
One of many officers on obligation lastly guided her to the again entrance which he claimed had a ramp connected. She rolled down the best way solely to search out two flimsy picket planks bridging an virtually foot-long distinction. With 4 individuals supporting her wheelchair, and a heavy feeling of being let down, Kavya forged her vote.
However did she really feel like an equal citizen?
India is dwelling to the most important inhabitants of individuals with disabilities. Virtually 2.21 p.c of its inhabitants has some type of incapacity. The Rights of Individuals with Disabilities Act, which was applied in 2016, mandates accessibility of the electoral course of beneath Part 11 of the Act.
It bestows the duty on the Election Fee of India to make sure that all polling stations are accessible, with all obligatory materials associated to the method accessible.
Based on the Press Data Bureau, as many as 6.2 million voters have disabilities out of the 910 million individuals eligible to forged their vote. The identical report states that the motto of the Normal Elections of 2019 was ‘Accessible Elections’ and several other measures starting from mapping electors with disabilities to their nearest polling stations, putting in ramps, having Braille-embossed Electoral Picture Id Playing cards and Digital Voting Machines (EVMs), transportation amenities and signal language interpreters to make the method simpler.
In a 2019 op-ed in The Hindustan Instances, George Abraham, a social entrepreneur, inspirational speaker and incapacity activist, shared his expertise of casting his vote along with his spouse, who escorted him. He was requested to replenish kind 49A since he didn’t know Braille and relied on the assist of his partner to help him.
“Within the following weeks, my colleagues and I spoke to a number of blind and visually impaired individuals from throughout the nation relating to their voting expertise. Many have been appreciative of the ECI’s efforts in making these elections accessible, whereas some cribbed of insensitive officers. There have been just a few cubicles the place the Braille checklist of candidates was lacking. However general, these elections have been an incredible enchancment so far as inclusion of individuals with disabilities was involved,” he notes within the article.
Over the previous few years, the decision for accessible elections by civil society organisations in addition to from inside the ECI has turn into stronger.
“The momentum of accessible elections received excessive inside ECI in addition to throughout the nation when Nationwide Voters Day in 2018 embraced its theme as Accessible Elections. At ECI, we had steady discussions and labored on all potential facilitations on the polling stations to make sure hassle-free voting by our residents with disabilities, thereby ECI issued a set of notifications/ circulars on the identical to all Chief Election Officers. I additionally facilitated the inclusion of individuals with disabilities inside the system to the bottom degree via their inclusion in Committees for accessible elections from nationwide to state, district, and AC ranges,” says Smitha Sadasivan, who works as an Accessibility Guide within the Incapacity Laws Unit of Vidya Sagar in Chennai.
Though efforts have been made by the Authorities to go away nobody behind, gaps nonetheless exist.
“Proper now, the gaps are in the suitable understanding of accessibility itself, its requirements and facilitations on the floor degree for which quite a lot of capability constructing is required inside the election equipment,” Smitha provides.
Whereas 2019 was termed because the Yr of Accessible Elections, this yr is one step forward with the federal government now providing the ability to ‘Vote from Dwelling’ or VfH to individuals with disabilities over 40%, and people aged 80 and above.
Beginning this yr’s Lok Sabha Elections, individuals with disabilities in addition to senior residents over 85 can register to vote from their houses utilizing a postal poll. This lodging is just prolonged to individuals who register to take action upfront. The voters making use of this amenity must have acceptable paperwork proving their incapacity/age.
The method to register is as follows:
- 1. Just remember to have the required paperwork. For individuals with incapacity, this could be a Distinctive Incapacity Identification Card (UDID) and a legitimate proof of age matching the voter checklist with their Polling Sales space for Senior Residents.
- 2. Fill a Type 12D – Letter of intimation to Assistant Returning Officer (for absentee voters) and submit it to your respective Sales space Stage Officers. You’ll be able to obtain the shape utilizing this hyperlink.
- 3. Following this, the Sales space Stage Officers out of your polling sales space will go to your private home as soon as after the final date for withdrawal of nominations.
- 4. Within the occasion that the voter shouldn’t be accessible at dwelling, they may return as soon as extra earlier than 26 April (the final day of polling for this cycle of elections). If the voter shouldn’t be accessible for the second time as effectively, they may lose their alternative to vote.
- 5. Please needless to say as soon as a voter has utilized for a postal poll, they not have the choice to vote in particular person on the polling sales space.
These postal ballots shall be counted individually from the votes forged at polling cubicles and shall be carried by the Sales space Stage Officers in a sealed envelope to make sure secrecy.
In case you want any extra particulars about amenities for PwD voters, you may get them on the ECI’s official web page right here.
In the event you want to communicate to a consultant from the Election Fee of India, you possibly can name at 1950 between 9 am and 9 pm.
(Contributed by V-shesh; Edited by Padmashree Pande)
