A large number of thumb impressions on the counter foil of the ballot papers of panchayat elections held on Wednesday proves that a pall of illiteracy still looms large over the rural areas. These thumb impressions also mock at the efforts of the Government to improve the literacy level.
In the panchayat election every voter is provided four ballot papers for the Member Village Panchayat, Pradhan, Member Block Panchayat and Member District Panchayat. After ascertaining their identity the voters are asked to put their signatures on the counter foil of each ballot. This correspondent visited many polling booths of Vikasnagar block of Dehradun district on Wednesday and was shocked to see large percentage of the voters asking for the inkpad to put theirthumb impression on the ballot.
One of the poll officials inside a booth in Dhakrani village said that almost 40 per cent voters are opting for thumb impression instead of signature on the ballots. He further added that number of women opting for thumb impression is much higher than men.
Interestingly, Dehradun district with 90.32 per cent literacy rate is one of the high literacy districts of the State. One veiled woman who was accompanying her husband said that she is not educated and had cast her vote as per the wishes of her husband. At Panchayat Bhawan polling booth at Dhakrani village of Vikasnagar block one woman Guddi said that though she is uneducated she knows to write her name. She said that her daughter Asha taught her to write her name and she now proudly puts her name instead of thumb impression.
Sultana Bano standing at a queue outside a booth at minority dominated Dhakrani village informed that she is a post-graduate and B.Ed. degree-holder, and that it is painful when she sees large number of illiterate women in her village.
An official said that an illiterate person normally takes a longer time than an educated person to complete the voting. The Deputy Commissioner , Ajit Singh, told The Pioneer the voters are free to put their thumb impression or signature on the ballots and that the commission does not keep data how many voters put thumb impression on the ballots.