Left in darkness: Will Indian Start-ups have an answer?

Though lesser privileged sections of the society like the SC/ST/OBC population have always found a place in the political party agendas and manifestos during elections, the section that has always been ignored despite comprising more than 2% of the entire population, is those who are differently abled.

Despite Election Commission formulating several steps over the years to uphold the voting rights of the differently abled persons hardly have they been implemented during the polls. The blind citizens are the worst sufferers in this case.

“We end up sitting at our homes, discouraged, neglected and let down yet again by our society,” said Narayan Ganguly, secretary of Blind Persons’ Association, Kolkata.

“For each form of disability, there are different complications. For blind or deaf people, climbing upstairs to the poll booths might not be a problem, which would not be for the wheelchair bound. So, provisions like a dummy Braille ballot paper or a ramp to climb the stairs should be present,” said Ganguly.

He added, “The funny thing is, during campaigns, our problems are strongly highlighted by political parties to garner sympathy. We even get a visit from them at our homes. But as soon as the objective is achieved, we are not in the picture anymore.”

Like all our lives our vote has also been an uncertainty keeping us in the darkness for so many years, stated Animesh Bhattacharya, a teacher in Behala Blind School.

“Before the advent of EVM machine, when voting was done by ballot papers, we faced tremendous problems. Our closed ones were not allowed to enter the booth with us and vote on our behalf. The presiding officer did that, and we had no way to find out if he did it honestly.”

Though there has been provision for Braille ballot papers in the booth the complication exceeds far beyond it, complained Bhattacharya.

“There is also a major chunk of the population who are unable to read Braille scripts. Does that mean they won’t be able to vote? Technology has advanced, and there could be many alternatives. There is software, namely J- Dictate, which helps a physically challenged person to control the computer by voice alone and receive speech feedback from it. But, no one wants to go through so much trouble for us,” said Bhattacharya.

Thanks to National Institute of Professionals (NIP), an NGO working for upholding the rights of physically challenged people, who has announced a helpline number (8961596874), where differently abled persons facing any problem related to the ongoing elections can call.