Maharashtra: Election panel shifts multiple polling centres to ground floor for disabled voters in state

“The polling agents said I have to arrange for four people to carry me to the first floor, but the staircase was so narrow that two people could not climb together. I could not vote that day,” she said.

On Thursday, an official from the ECI informed Dalal that special arrangements had been made this time at Fatima High School to enable handicapped persons to cast their vote on the ground floor. “If what they say is true, I will vote after 10 years,” she said.

Maharashtra has 3.96 lakh handicapped voters. Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dilip Shinde said, “In order to ensure the process of casting votes is smooth for those with disabilities, we have ensured that 5,400 polling stations across Mumbai, Thane and Pune are on the ground floor.”

Vaishnavi Jaykumar, an activist campaigning for accessible elections, said despite multiple meetings with ECI officers before Lok Sabha polls, the issue of inaccessible polling booth forced several disabled persons to return home without casting votes. “The most common problem is of location of polling booths on first and second floors. This is the first time when almost every booth we checked looks accessible in the city,” she said.

In Malabar Hill’s Villa Theresa School, wheelchair-bound Sunita Didwania said her polling booth was in the basement with no railing for the elderly people during Lok Sabha elections. There were also no volunteers to help pick wheelchair. While Didwania was able to vote, she said, officials were not trained in assisting wheelchair-bound or visually impaired voters.

South Mumbai has been known for its low voter turnout. In last five months, ECI drew out a list to shift maximum booths to ground floors for elderly and handicapped people. “This time there are just 15 polling booths on the first floor. The rest 262 are now located on the ground floor,” Malabar Hill Returning officer Kiran Panbude said. He added that polling booth in Pedder Road’s Villa Theresa School has also been shifted from basement to ground floor.

Apart from mobility issues, several visually impaired voters are demanding information in braille to cast vote. Faizmoin Gulam Shaikh, a resident of Bhendi Bazaar, said while his polling centre, Taiyebiyah Girls High School, has numbering for candidates in braille on ballot unit, it did not have the mandatory paper that gives details of which number has been allotted to which political party in braille. “I had to ask the number allotted to party from election officers so that I could vote. This is violation of my privacy,” Shaikh said. He added that he has also faced issues with newly launched People With Disabilities (PWD) mobile application to register for pick-up and drop services.

The EC launched this app for handicapped people during Lok Sabha polls, the app allows voter to register for pick-up and assistance during voting.