New Delhi: About 77.4 lakh Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) are registered voters in India. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 provides for a legal mandate to ensure all polling stations to be made accessible for persons with disabilities and all material related to electoral process are easily understandable and usable by them.
Recognising that a strong and vibrant democracy is founded on the bedrock of inclusion and participation, the Election Commission today organised a virtual national conference on accessible elections 2021 to hold deliberations on themes of identification and mapping of PwDs; accessible registration; facilitation at polling stations; efficient use of technology for accessible elections; accessible voter education and leveraging partnerships and collaborations; and, media outreach.
Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra reaffirmed Election Commission’s commitment to make elections more inclusive, accessible, and voter friendly for PwDs. He said that the Commission values the decision making role of primary stakeholders – the voters including persons with disabilities, who can and should play a key role in electoral process.
The Conference had the objective to assess the present accessibility policies and discuss strategies for addressing barriers to enhance participation in electoral process for voters with disabilities. It was attended by Chief Electoral Officers, Civil Society Organisations representing various disabilities and representatives from Government Ministries and Institutions.
Based on suggestions received from different stakeholders, a resolution was adopted to pave the way forward to further streamline the policy framework on ‘Accessible Elections’, for future elections.
Some of the the ideas discussed during the virtual conference were:
- Comprehensive monitoring mechanism and Accessibility Assessment of all polling Stations; Integration of all mainstream policies and programs for PwDs
- Training and sensitization of election personnel; increased awareness to improve understanding of disability
- Improvised methods of data collection
- Awareness on postal ballot facility for PwDs
- Robust IVRS Helpline and online grievance mechanism and deployment of accessibility observers and micro observers to ensure accessibility at all levels of electoral process.
– global bihari bureau
