LS polls: PWDs request for facilities in polling stations

CHENNAI: Persons with disabilities (PWD) request the officials to have better accessible facilities in the polling stations ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

"Voting facilities from their house is restricted only to people who are certified disabled 40 percent or more. They are forced to depend on the Election Commission and only few people who belongs to the community was reached out for the facility. Those people who did not have the disability certificates are not eligible for the facility of voting from their house," said Vaishanavi Jayakumar from the Disability Rights Alliance.

Even all the provisions are on paper and not in ground.

There is no assurance of having a ramp of at least 1:12 gradient for the disabled voters. There must be transparency in everything related to the benefits or accessibility for PWDs for the elections. Also there must also be transport facilities provided for persons with disabilities to reach the polling stations, she added.

The disabled must have the accessibility to reach and vote without any obstacles. They must be provided with all the facilities in the polling stations like toilets, drinking water ramps, facilities for people with low vision, said the organisations working for the disabled.

"Many people were unaware about the facility of voting from the house and so they have the choice of voting only on April 19th. Still many are not having proper awareness about all the facilities provided for them. There must be guards who could also communicate to them in Tamil also which is the first need for the disabled people while coming to the polling station" said P Saravanan, Chairman, Disabled Social Justice Movement.

Most of the Government school grounds are muddy so the ramps must be provided in a situation where the disabled people could go themselves and cast their vote and come back without depending others.

For the visually impaired people there must be Braille system or else there must be an option to bring a person along with them who comes in silently. And there must be someone to help them with the sign language. The polling stations must have disabled friendly toilets for the disabled people which is another need for the people.

When contacted the district election officer and GCC Commissioner J Radhakrishnan said that the requirements which the community asked were maximum provided.

To help them in a better way ramps are provided in the polling stations and barricades are removed.

Regarding the lack of awareness about the casting vote from house they were informed through media and meetings were organised. There were people from the community who still preferred to come to the polling stations and both the ways facilities were arranged for them, he added.