The election in the world’s largest democracy seems like nothing less than full-fledged blockbuster entertainment. There is so much at stake that political parties are ready to woo their voters in all possible ways. The parliamentary parties leave no stone unturned until the last day of campaigning to ensure a comfortable victory. During the election season, we witness a barrage of incessant promises regarding a better India and each voter is bombarded with promises of countering terrorism, resolution of agricultural distress, employment opportunities, and nearly everything under the sun.
We also witness parties releasing their manifestos to attract voters, and attacks and counter-attacks have become the norm of the day. However, amid all this chaos, we all tend to forget an extremely crucial change that the nation needs – a conducive environment to cast votes.
The first phase of the elections kick-started on April 11 in 91 Lok Sabha seats across 18 states and two Union Territories. However, this phase also reported a lot of distress caused to voters in different states. Reports of EVM malfunctioning were flying-in from multiple corners of the country. In Dehradun, polling was delayed in booth number 75 due to EVM failure. Similar reports also came from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and NCR (Ghaziabad). The EVM issue isn’t new. EVMs have enjoyed their fair share of controversy. From the claims that these machines are vulnerable to hacking and are being misused, to people demanding the return of the ballot paper system, each election has its own set of controversies.
This is not the first time that voters are complaining. Such reports are universal to elections. However, the question here is not about the validation of the reported incidents but whether this is the environment we deserve while exercising our fundamental right to cast a vote? The answer is definitely no, but do we have a quick fix to it? I say yes, we do.
Elections in India are conducted entirely by the government machinery, which the Election Commission manages until the polls are over. This has resulted in the common people of the country being completely unaware of the electoral process. Keeping the common people away from the actual conduct of elections has allowed interested parties to make wild claims about how chaotic the entire electoral process is.
A major result of distancing the public from the conduct of elections has been a growing sense of distrust over the electoral process itself. It is when people don’t know what is happening and the electoral process becomes a black box, that seeds of doubt are easily sown and disturbing incidents are reported. For political parties in India, attacking the Election Commission has become synonymous with attacking the government, even though the Commission today is completely independent of the government of the day.
Are Elections Truly Accessible To All The Citizens Of India?
Another issue, which I want to draw attention to, is related to equal electoral participation. There is a silent battle in which differently-abled people are fighting to exercise their right to vote. People who can’t listen or talk or walk are facing difficulty in being able to vote in this election. For such people, casting votes turns out to be a herculean task. They face difficulty in communicating with the polling personnel. A lot of such people have to return without being able to cast their votes. We can definitely find a solution to this, but apparently, no one pays heed to it.
According to the World Bank data, India has 40 to 80 million people with disabilities. The 2011 census pegged this figure at 26.8 million, with National Capital Territory of Delhi alone accounting for 2.34 lakh, a number disputed by disability rights activists who claim that the actual figure is much higher. Such people have been fighting for an equal right to vote. Voters having one of the 21 disabilities, mentioned by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, are termed as voters with a disability. The 21 disabilities in the list of the act include blindness, low vision, dwarfism, locomotor disability, intellectual disability, and mental illness, among others.
For those who belong to any such category, the barriers to electoral participation are large in number- inadequate or inaccessible voter education, inability to vote independently and privately, difficulties in voter registration, difficulty in physical access to training polling stations, and most significant is the lack of assistance from polling personnel.
So far, the focus has mostly been on wheelchairs, ramps, and braille, which, according to me, is a one-size-fits-all approach. Such measures are not enough to ensure that everyone gets an equal right to vote.
There should be basic training of polling personnel to be able to provide information as and when one needs. Polling booths must be made conducive to everyone who comes to vote. A step in this direction is a must and unless we work in this direction we cannot achieve absolute electoral participation. No wonder, then, that disabled people will complain that there is a long way to go before the elections in India can truly become accessible to them.
As said by Dr. BR Ambedkar, “one man, one vote, one value.” As a nation, we cannot afford to lose a large part of vote share by using disability as an excuse. The precautions, amendments, and measures taken by the Election Commission to conduct a free and fair election are commendable. At the moment, what is lacking is the human touch. The Election Commission now needs to take a step ahead and co-opt the common people of India to bolster the legitimacy of India’s electoral process.