All physically challenged persons of the state, voters aged 85 years and above, pregnant women and mothers of small infants also have equal legal rights like other citizens. The election process provides them an opportunity to participate equally in democracy. Therefore, it should be mandatory for them to make arrangements for easy voting at every polling station, said Chief Electoral Officer, Jharkhand K Ravi Kumar today in the auditorium of Nirvachan Sadan, Dhurva, Ranchi, to all the Social Welfare Officers and Assistant Directors, Social Security from all the districts of the state, during the training session on “Accessible Voting for Marginalized People”.
He said that for equal participation of such citizens in the democratic process of the country, clear guidelines have been issued by the Election Commission of India in accordance with Article 326 of the 'Constitution of India', Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act - 2016, Rule 49 N of the Election Conducting Rules. Apart from this, emphasis has also been laid on the use of digital technologies to facilitate them in the voting process. All the district social welfare officers of the state have been made nodal officers for this.
At their level, by nominating them as Sector Officers for each assembly constituency, with the help of non-political and neutral voluntary organizations, resident welfare organizations, etc., door to door survey of the eligible citizens of the excluded group, names of the left out eligible citizens in the electoral list. Work has to be done in a time bound manner to facilitate their registration and voting. For those voters from excluded groups who are unable to reach the polling station on their own, special attention should be given to local arrangements for transportation to the polling station as well as arrangements for sheds, chairs-benches, wheelchairs and volunteers in the polling station. Also, if any voter from the excluded group is unable to recognize the election symbol himself, the presiding officer of the polling station will be able to allow him to take a teenager below 18 years of age for voting as his assistant.
In the training session, Disability Commissioner Abhay Nandan Ambastha talked about the work being done by the Disability Commission for the voters. Additional Chief Electoral Officer Neha Arora informed about voter list and voting. He elaborately highlighted the topics like Booth Awareness Group, Sweep programme, honouring BLOs for good work etc. Director, Social Welfare Department, Shashi Prakash Jha has ensured minimum facilities at the polling stations including drinking water, electricity, help desk, posters, signage, ramps, availability of volunteers for the disabled as well as selected volunteers to assist the BLOs at the polling stations.
OSD of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Geeta Choubey discussed in detail the issues of providing minimum facilities at polling stations, transportation facilities for disabled/elderly voters, volunteers and medical kits etc. Point by point information was shared by Deputy Election Officer Headquarters Sanjay Kumar about social media, Saksham App, social media for disability.
In the training session, Haldar Mahato, coordinator of the state level social audit survey conducted by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer regarding providing minimum facilities at the booths, discussed point by point the important topics obtained in this survey. Also, Sapna Surin of Sight Savers, a voluntary group working in the field of disability, discussed the possible difficulties faced by disabled voters during voting and their immediate solution locally.
