Beyond the Ballot: Pioneering Pathways to Inclusive Elections

 According to the Guardian, 40% of the earth’s population are expected to participate in more than 70 elections this year. By the year-end, billions will have celebrated their preferred candidate’s victories or mourned their losses. We will get to see the results.  

However, what I am more interested in is to know whether our electoral processes are fully accessible for disabled voters or not. Do political parties consider having the issues concerning the disabled community part of their manifesto? Or what percentage is the community’s political representation?

As per the latest notification from Election Commission of India (ECI), of the total of whooping 97 crore voters, nearly nine million Persons with Disabilities are registered in ECI database and can exercise their right to franchise. In 2019, postal ballots were introduced for persons with Disabilities; ECI did a commendable job by adding the following initiatives for the community:-

• Mapping of all Persons with Disabilities polling station wise.
• All polling stations are to be situated on the ground floor.
• Separate queues, wheelchairs and ramps with proper gradient.
• Vote from home.
• Voter EPIC’s in Braille.
• Braille features on EVM’s.

While the move is hailed, the question concerning the community falls on deaf ears. If every sixth individual in India is disabled, why aren’t they accepted as representatives/Ministers etc.? Can’t we have at least one reserved seat in the two houses of the parliament?

I dialed Agnese Cigliano, a UK based election observer, to learn more about the accessibility in elections in the UK and if it is possible to compare it with India. She  expressed hope that good things take time and things are improving as she has observed Indian elections in the past. Late last year, ECI mandated the use of disability sensitive language during election campaigning. The draft can be accessed here.

By not having accessibility features on the websites of the political parties like alt text for images, description for links, contrast between background and text, captions for videos, etc. the guidelines don’t make much sense. The RPwD (Right to Persons with Disabilities) Act 2016 mentions that all polling related material and polling stations should be accessible to the PwD’s. 

Shashank Pandey, researcher at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy believes that during the pre-election period, the news media should also take on the role of creating awareness about the electoral process in accessible formats.  But is our legacy/mainstream media doing this duty? The answer clearly is no. Since journalists in India  are not trained to report/cover disabilities as I highlighted in my earlier blog here, we get to read the insensitive news piece stating, ‘wheelchair-user comes out to vote despite her disability’, which reinforces the idea that disability is an individual’s problem. Media, the 4th pillar of democracy, can play a key role in making the elections, celebrated as a festival of democracy, accessible by spreading awareness about the accessibility in elections. 

Officials at polling booths are not able to help the PwD’s about the accessibility features of EVM’s since they are not trained enough. But every cloud has a silver lining. Hyderabad, my host city, is one of the first cities to prioritize accessibility for disabled voters. To facilitate seamless participation for voters with disabilities, a voter awareness program was conducted for Persons with Disabilities (PWD) associations here in Hyderabad by Deputy District Election officer (DEO) Anudeep Durishetty. 

He emphasized that essential infrastructure is being installed in polling centers in Hyderabad district to accommodate voters with disabilities. Dedicated thematic polling stations designed for the disabled are being established. Ramps and wheelchairs will be readily available at all polling centers to ensure easy access.

Indian elections are undoubtedly very expensive. The Centre for Media Studies estimated that $8.6 billion was spent by parties, candidates and regulatory bodies over the course of the 2019 election, comparable to the $6.5 billion spent in the presidential and congressional elections in the US in 2016. But the question is why we don’t see elected disabled MLA’s, MLC’s, Mayors, Ministers, nor even parliamentarians. Why can’t we invest in “people with disabilities”, so that they are part of the powerful decision making bodies as they face myriad challenges to enter the formal politics.

This election, let’s ensure to have accessible elections by taking care of your nearest polling booth. Here is how:

1. Ensure that the polling booth is easily visible from a distance with signage pasted wherever required. If it is not adequately signposted, reach out to your election officer.
2. Could the polling booth be used by the wheelchair user without any assistance? If not, make sure, volunteers are ready to help.
3. Is there anything blocking the route to the building such as tightly or wrongly parked cars. If yes, it is the duty of the staff to remove the barriers and bottlenecks.
4. Is the ballot box easily accessible?
5. Please check if there is a Tactile Voting Device (TVD) for blind or partially sighted voters.
6. Is the political material- such as flyers, posters, standees, hoardings visible enroute polling booths or inside them.

As the election mercury rises in India, we hope to be part of inclusive elections.

References: 

1. CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/08/asia/india-election-spending-intl/index.html
2. Election Commission of India, https://www.eci.gov.in/ 
3. Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/ 
4. Reframing Disability,   https://rotel.pressbooks.pub/children-families-schools-communities/chapter/reframing-disability/#:~:text=Reframing%20disability%20as%20diversity%2C%20in,other%20minority%20groups%20as%20well. 
5. The Hindu Business Line. 
6. The Guardian.