2009DelhiFriends,I wish to share with you all, the fabulous experience I had yesterday while casting my vote, right from the entrance, the polling staff including the security personnel were very much cooperative and well trained, they all helped me a lot, the security personnel allowed me to enter in the booth and caste my vote out of turn despite there was a long queue outside. The presiding officer has offered me a seat and then gave me a dummy ballet paper in Braille to read, it was in both Hindi and English, then he himself took me to the other poll officials for another formalities and lastly he left me alone in the chamber where the EVMs were placed. As there were 40 candidates from my New Delhi constituency, there were 3 machines labeled with serial numbers in Braille, after casting my vote successfully, the presiding officer took me to my friend, accompanying me who was waiting outside. In short, I can say that it was a very nice experience, which I did never imagine, it was my first independent voting in the last 10 years since I became blind, thanks to the ECI, SC and disability rights activists who have made it possible. Thanks and regards, Manoj KarnatakaAt many booths there were no Braille-enabled stickers or dummy ballot papers Bangalore: Nandini (35) was one among scores of visually impaired persons, who had been looking forward to this “historic election”, ever since the Supreme Court ordered in 2007 making it mandatory to make elections disabled-friendly. However, she was disappointed to find that at her polling booth in Laxmi Memorial School at Lingarajpuram there was no Braille-enabled stickers or dummy ballot papers. A dejected yet angry Ms. Nandini was forced to request her relative to vote on her behalf, as she had done in the past. http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/24/stories/2009042456920400.htm Visually challenged faced problems while exercising their franchise http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Apr242009/state20090423132065.asp Madhya PradeshBooths in Bhopal were completely accessible for the blind. All the 1078 booths of Bhopal had Braille stickers in the EVMS the staff was thoroughly trained, they were very polite. The list of all the candidates in Braille was also available. TV spots were been telecast There was adequate coverage in radio and newspapers regarding the facilities for the blind in the election.- Rohit Trivedi MaharashtraDear Friends, I have just returned after casting my vote & wish to share my experience with the rest of the group. I am registered as a voter in the Mumbai North-east parliamentary constituency. The experience was much better than any previous experiences. The EVM's had Braille stickers & dummy ballot papers in Braille were available for use by blind voters. Temporary ramps had been erected for use by wheelchair users. All the four polling booths were located on the ground floor instead of having them on the ground & first floors as was done in previous elections. The election staff was helpful & aware of the rules framed for accessible voting. I hope that all other friends have a similar trouble-free voting experience. Regards Sameer Latey Mumbai, India RajasthanDisabled people seem to have had a very good experience in Jaipur, Rajasthan as they successfully cast their votes.. Folks, This was the first time I’ve cast vote for Lok Sabha election, and I’m happy that the election commission has taken great step in order to enable visually impaired people in participating in country’s development and to enforce their right of constructing nation. If I talk about my experience, perhaps you can deduce by my expression until now, that the experience was gratifying. As Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, it was prevailing providing necessary facilities to visually impaired folks. In fact, I have found the booth accessible as there was no staircase. Also, I’ve seen ramps available there. Though there was a lot of crowd, but I had been given priority to vote above all of them. I had been provided a dummy ballot paper in Braille which had information about candidates name, their associated number on EVM, and their party. I’ve also liked that the dummy ballot paper was in Hindi which insured the participation of almost all the folks who want to cast their votes. After I decided the candidate to be voted and noted his number in my brain, I had been taken in the ballot room, where I found the EVM with Braille levels on it. There was no trouble in finding the number I had decided, and I pressed the button in front of the desired number. The whole staff there was very supportive, and they assisted me during the entire process. Thanks to EC for providing such fruitful facility. Here, I’d like to tell that a blind welfare organization called “Rajasthan netraheen kalian sangh” situated in Jaipur was given responsibility to publish dummy ballot papers in Braille for all the 25 constituencies of Rajasthan which they have successfully completed a few days back. Therefore, I hope that at least all friends in Rajasthan will have the same prolific experience. With profound regards, Prateek Agarwal. Tamil NaduI have voted in the arakkonam constituency, and it was a pain to vote, as there was no dummy brail ballet sheet nor the stickers on the in EVM even the poling officer came to help me after I requested, some how I have voted, same as last year with pain.Vinod Benjamin West BengalWest Bengal had different/varying views about the elections: Hello, I thought of sharing my experience on voting in accessible system. Unfortunately, my name has been removed from the electoral roll and I came to know of it last Sunday only. I checked it online and noticed that my name is no longer there, though my wife's name is still there. I cast my vote last time in the assembly poll in West Bengal in 2006. I contacted the Officer on Special Duty of the Election office of the state with all details. He tried to help me, but it was already too late. The irony is that I was closely involved in printing of Braille dummy ballot sheets here. When my organization Blind Persons' Association was asked for the printing job, I was deputed to look into the matter. However, we were not in a position to print ballots for all 42 constituencies in the state. So we requested two other organizations--Narendrapur R.K. Mission and Voice of World--to share the job. As regards the general feature here, I was informed an hour earlier that the Braille ballot was not available at a polling station at Jadabpur in Kolkata. On May 7, during the last phase of the election, a voter at Durgapur in Burdwan district did not get the ballot in Braille. Otherwise, there is no information of non-availability of Braille ballot. As far as I know, the EVMs have Braille labels and the officials are cooperative. I wish I could cast my vote alone this time. Best regards, Amiyo Biswas. Note: The experiences have been taken from mails sent to access india e-group |
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