4 min readNew DelhiSep 8, 2024 08:11 AM IST
First published on: Sep 8, 2024 at 02:45 AM IST
The last time Sheila, 70, entered a polling booth was decades ago. “When Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India,” she recalls. At that time, she was a “happily married woman” living in Agra. Now widowed and with both her sons dead, she lives in a shelter home in Delhi with her four grandchildren.
“After my husband died, all his property was taken by my mother-in-law. I had nothing, my documents and everything else was left in Agra,” she says.
On Saturday, she was seen lining up outside the DUSIB (Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board) shelter home at Bangla Sahib Lane to participate in a voter ID registration drive organised by Salam Balak Trust NGO.
She was the first one to apply for the card among the residents of the shelter home as well as homeless people around the Hanuman Mandir who participated in the drive.
“All my grandchildren do is sell flowers and books at traffic signals. Now they have reached a marriageable age. I want to vote so that they can get better jobs,” she says.
Another participant of the drive is Pooja Devi, 30, who has been living at the shelter home for the past seven months with her six children.
A resident of Bulandshahr, UP, she came to Delhi after her husband died. “He worked as a plumber. When I came here, I started working at a shop of bangles for Rs 300 per day. The food we get here is not edible. I want a government that can give me a decent job and food,” she says.
Santosh Gupta, coordinator at Salaam Baalak, said that an awareness campaign was carried out to inform the eligible voters about the drive. “We got 37 people to fill up the forms for Voter IDs today. There are still many to go, as some students have gone to college. Others had gone to work. We are also working on expanding the drive to other shelter homes,” he said.
Vaisnavi, 21, is among the first-time voters who were seen participating in the drive. A student of Delhi University, she doesn’t share the optimism of the older people around her. “I enrolled because all of them (the residents) were. I don’t think much changes for people like us no matter which government comes,” she tells The Indian Express.
Living in the shelter home with her mother since 2015, she says no government has been able to ensure basic necessities for her family. “My mother votes. She was a watchman at a hospital in Tilak Nagar.
She lost her job after the contract of the company ended two months ago.
No government has addressed the issue of contract-based work. The contractor takes half our money even if we get temporary jobs. What’s the point of voting then?” she asks.
However, Sunil Kumar, 31, another resident of the shelter home, who stays there with his 70-year-old mother, says that despite their hardships, voting is the only power they have.
“I know that not much changes around here. I have been living here for three years. But at the end, the day of voting is the only day that can make us feel like we also have a say. So, I will vote in the next Delhi election,” he says.
Voting drive at DUSIB shelter home at Bangla Sahib Lane in New Delhi, on Saturday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna) 
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