By Keshav Pariat
SHILLONG: Is there any justification for a registered voter of Meghalaya to turn up to a polling station on election day only to find him/herself unable to vote? Their name is on the list of voters, everything is in order as far as their EPIC is concerned, but there is one completely avoidable problem: Access.
The Supreme Court passed an interim order in April 2004 instructing the Election Commission to ensure that wooden ramps were provided at every polling station midway through that year’s general elections. No provision was made then for Braille stickers to be used on voting machines for the blind, but the Court made it clear that that would be the case in all future elections.
When contacted about the upcoming Assembly elections in Meghalaya, the Chief Electoral Officer, P Naik, said that the Election Commission aims to provide all necessary help to people with disabilities who come to cast their vote on polling day, but it was up to the respective District Commissioners to install the ramps in the polling stations. Voting machines with Braille will be provided and those who are disabled can come with a companion to help them in the voting process.
The Apex Court’s decision came as a result of a consistent campaign by ordinary citizens, disabled and non-disabled alike, and people power forced the state to act. But the fact that it took until the 21st century for the simple provision of ramps means that there is a long way to go until people with disabilities are treated as inclusive members of society.
This problem was highlighted by Carmo Noronha, executive director of Bethany Society, and Bertha Dkhar, member of Bethany’s board and head of Jyothi Sroat School, who feel that government and society at large are responsive to issues regarding people with disabilities but not proactive enough.
“What we are concerned about is that we are still excluded from mainstream society when we want to be part of it. It’s the person first, disability later,” Dkhar says. “Rights for persons with disabilities are no different from any other human rights…but society is not voluntarily doing it. It’s when the society is forced to do something, then it acts. And society means government too. They do try, but they are very slow on the uptake.
“Organisations working with people with disabilities have to lobby a lot, but there’s not a readiness for social inclusion.”
According to the 2001 census – the 2011 figures are not yet available – the Indian disabled population is around 2 percent, although Noronha says it might be as high as 2.5-3 percent.
Noronha made it clear that one of the key things that need to change is how the issue of disability is dealt with. “I think that they (people with disabilities) are basically a forgotten lot,” he says.
And when politicians and society do look at the disabled, they take the wrong approach. “Whenever the subject is broached it’s a very charity-based model. I don’t think any legislator or any person standing for election has gone to the trouble of looking at the first human rights treaty of the 21st century, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” says Noronha.
He says it’s very clearly written that people with disabilities are entitled to all of the human rights that others have. So persons with disabilities are saying, ‘I don’t want anything special, please give me my rights as a human being.’
Another well-known organisation in the city is Dwar Jingkyrmen, a school for children in need of special education. Founded by husband-wife duo Sajjad and Zeenat Ali in 1986, Dwar Jingkyrmen was set up because there was no school for the couple’s youngest daughter, who is physically and mentally disabled. Their daughter, now an adult, has a voter’s card and her name is on the electoral rolls. In fact, Sajjad Ali says that there was absolutely no problem in getting his daughter registered to vote. But that does not mean that she is able to exercise her right.
“She can’t get to vote because she is totally wheelchair bound and her wheelchair can’t get there. Every time elections are held they build a ramp, but it was not a ramp, it was a pyramid. Even for a person to push the wheelchair was impossible.”
Asked whether the accessibility issue would be better taken care of before the upcoming elections, Ali simply stated, “God alone knows.”