For nearly five years, Professor Raghuram Kalyanraman, a resident of East Tambaram in Chennai, has been vociferously campaigning to make public spaces more accessible to people with disabilities. Raghuram, who is visually impaired, has been fighting to bring the issue to the notice of authorities, but to little avail. The situation has remained largely unchanged for years, as was evident when he went to cast his vote for the urban local body elections that took place in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, February 19.
Raghuram cast his vote at the Sitadevi Garodia Hindu Vidyalaya in Chennai. Sharing his ordeal with TNM, Raghuram said, “I had no clue how to walk into the polling booth. On the way, vehicles were parked everywhere and there were people everywhere. There was no one to guide us. In the name of helping, someone just dragged me into the polling station.”
“Inside the polling station, everyone was surprised, evidently because they did not expect a visually impaired person to cast his vote. They did not have the Braille sheet with the list of candidates when I asked for it. The officer there tried to play down the issue and said that I could cast the vote with the help of the staff. I wanted to do it independently, but since it did not seem possible, I wanted to leave the premises without voting. But the officers convinced me to vote. They showed me the EVM and told me the candidates and their buttons in serial order. Eventually, I did end up voting, but I have no clue to whom I cast my vote,” he said.
Many persons with disabilities faced the same experience, according to activists from the community. According to them, very few facilities cater to different disabilities. Deepak, State President of December 3 Movement, an organisation working for the rights of persons with disablities, told TNM, “Except for equipping polling booths with wheelchairs, no other arrangements were made. Even this arrangement was superficial. They just arranged it for the sake of it. In some places wooden ramps were used, which is extremely dangerous, not just for us but for others too. Clearly the authorities did not audit the polling booths to check the facilities, which is mandatory. There were no people to assist people using wheelchairs. The Braille sheet was not arranged for the visually impaired. Authorities should understand that arranging wheelchairs alone does not make polling booths accessible for everyone. This thinking itself is regressive. There are several other disabilities.”
Dr V Janaki, a resident of Mylapore, also alleged that her polling station in Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya School also was not disable-friendly. “There were no ramps and wheelchairs, and no signage or captions for the hearing impaired or visually impaired either.”
The Election Commission of India is required by law to provide an array of facilities to assure ease of voting for people with disabilities. These include appropriate signage, obstacle-free and level pathways to the voting compartments, accessible toilets etc. However, few to none of these were made available to persons with disabilities during the urban local body polls on Saturday.