Who cares for differently-abled?

Government officers entrusted with the task of holding elections to the 17th Lok Sabha have probably failed to understand what the Election Commission had asked them to do when it said no voter should be left out. It is a fact that a large number of officials did come up with innovative ways to attract maximum participation of voters. In Assam, the deputy commissioner of Barpeta district, for instance, had made arrangements for crèches in polling stations so that women who have infants and little children who could not be left behind at home, could be safely kept at least when such women enter the polling booth to cast votes. Likewise, the Nalbari deputy commissioner had written personally signed letters to various sections of people of the district asking them to come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. These were in addition to the general instructions issued by the Election Commission on its campaign aptly called ‘No voter to be left behind’, one that definitely created a positive impact in the minds of the people across the country. But then when it came to ensuring that voters who were differently abled and physically challenged, many officers definitely failed in their duty to ensure that such voters did not face any problem while going to cast their votes. The Election Commission had clearly said – ‘Electors/Voters having one among the 21 disabilities as mentioned by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 are termed as voters with disabilities. In addition, if a person who has reduced mobility and/or motor function and/or physical coordination due to age, temporary ailment, pregnancy and other disease, and needs to be facilitated to get registered and to vote are termed as electors/voters with reduced mobility and physical functions.’ The Election Commission, in its order on September 27, 2018 had very clearly said that each and every person with disabilities should be tagged polling-station wise and he/she should be picked up from his/her residence and dropped back there after he/she has cast vote. It said, that there should be proper transport facility for persons with disabilities (PwDs) in each and every polling station on the day of polls and that government vehicles could be used for this purpose. The Election Commission had made responsible every District Electoral Officer/Returning Officer for entire transportation exercise in relation to voters who were persons with disabilities and had also ordered appointment of a transport nodal officer for each district. In Assam, however, majority of the District Electoral Officers and Returning Officers failed to understand the seriousness of this order and simply chose to ignore it. This has been proved by the fact that a person like Arman Ali, who is executive director of the New Delhi-based National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, did not know how to take his wheel-chair up the stairs to the polling booth that the authorities had set up in the first floor of a school building in the heart of Guwahati. Ali in fact had to return home in his first attempt to cast his vote, to be lifted physically in his wheel-chair by a few persons later in the day to the polling booth later in the day. If this has happened in the heart of Guwahati, and that too to a person who is internationally reputed for his campaign for rights of the disabled people, imagine what must have happened in the other districts.