Making elections accessible

Elections after elections, orthopedically-challenged K. Selvi would crawl to the polling booth at a government school in Vadakkarai near Red Hills. At the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the polling booth became a little less inaccessible, as it offered her a wheelchair. However, without a volunteer to push the wheelchair, Selvi’s sister ended up doing it, while holding her eight-month-old baby.

At the 2019 LS polls, 36-year-old K. Alamelu crawled towards the booth, only to discover her name was not on the voters’ list. No wheelchair. No volunteers to push the chair. Over all of these, the polling officials were not helpful. She returned home without casting her vote. The visually-impaired have their litany of problems.