Election officials to visit electors on receipt of consent
*Polling Stations to have disability specific volunteers
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 19: Over 1.50 lakh Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and senior citizens of above 85 years of age in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir can avail home voting facility during the General Elections-2024 announced recently by the Election Commission of India.
As per the electoral data, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, there are 77613 Persons with Disabilities (not less than 40% of a specified disability) in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly, there are 77045 senior citizens (85+).
During the General Elections, they need not to face the hassle of travelling up to Polling Stations if their health or any other circumstance don’t permit them to do so and they can simply avail the home voting facility to exercise their democratic right. This is for the first time that Election Commission of India has made available the facility of vote-from-home through postal ballot for these two types of voters.
An officer of the office of Chief Electoral Officer J&K told EXCELSIOR that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will obtain consent from the Persons with Disabilities and senior citizens (85+) and two polling officials accompanied by a videographer and a security person will visit the voter’s home and enable him or her to vote in a postal ballot.
“Such voters will be informed in advance about the date and approximate time of visit of election officials by an SMS to the mobile number mentioned in the application”, he further said, adding “complete secrecy of the ballot would be maintained as the ballot paper would be sealed in a double envelope to be delivered to the Returning Officer”.
About the eligibility to cast vote through postal ballot, the officer said that an elector who is marked in the database for electoral roll and having a benchmark disability certificate (not less than 40% of a specified disability) as certified by the concerned certifying authority under Section 2 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 will be eligible and elector, while submitting the application in Form 12D, has to enclose the copy of benchmark disability certificate with it. However, an elector, above 85 years of age, is not required to give any additional certificate or undertaking with Form 12D.
Notwithstanding this special arrangement, the Election Commission of India has also made arrangements for comfortable voting by these two categories of voters at the Polling Stations also.
It will be ensured that Polling Stations for these two categories of voters are on ground floor and facilities like ramps, waiting area, wheel chairs, first aid and toilets are in place. Moreover, there will be disability specific poll volunteers at Polling Stations.
Signage, obstacle free wide leveled pathway from entrance to voting compartment, voter information slips in Braille, dummy ballot sheets in Braille, Braille on Electronic Voting Machines, magnifying glasses/sheets for persons with reduced visibility etc are the other facilities which will be available for Persons with Disabilities and senior citizens.
It is pertinent to mention here that Section 11 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 which deals with accessibility in voting mandates that the Election Commission of India would ensure that all Polling Stations are accessible to Persons with Disabilities and all material related to electoral process are easily understandable by and accessible to them.
As per the official data, there are total 8692646 electors in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Of these, 4435541 are males and 4256946 females. Pulwama is the only district in the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir where the number of women electors is more than male electors. The number of women voters is 202899 and that of male voters is 200277.
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