With no Braille-enabled handbooks provided for the local body polls, hundreds of visually challenged voters may find it challenging to exercise their franchise in the local body election.
“During the last Parliament election, the visually-challenged voters were provided with handbooks to get an idea of the order of the candidates as displayed in the electronic voting machines. Before voting, I studied the handbook and understood the order of the names in the machine and voted,” said B. Anilkumar, State president of the Youth wing of the Kerala Federation of the Blind.
The Federation has a membership of around 6,000 persons, who have blindness of 75 per cent or above. The number of persons with lesser blindness may come to around 10,000 in the State, said Mr. Anilkumar.
The handbook had helped the visually challenged persons to vote on their own without seeking external help. Without the handbook, the visually challenged ones, who have learned Braille script may find it difficult to vote for the candidates of their choice, said Mr. Anilkumar.
“This time, we have to blindly trust the aides to vote. Yet, we cannot be assured that our votes would be casted for the persons of our choice as we have to depend on others to find out the order of the candidates in the machine for voting,” he said.
“During the last Parliament election,” said Teekkaram Meena, the Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala, “the Election Commission provided handbooks in Braille script for the blind after holding consultations with the organisations of the visually challenged persons at national level.” The facility proved to be helpful for them to vote, said Mr. Meena.
Confirming that no handbooks would be available for the visually-challenged voters, State Election Commissioner V. Bhaskaran said they could seek the help of an aide to vote.
All the voting machines provided for the civic polls are Braille-enabled ones. Those familiar with the Braille script can use the facility. Others may have to seek the help of aide, he said.
The aide, who should be person of above 18 years, would be allowed to help only one person. He should also provide a signed declaration at the polling station before venturing out to help the voter, he said.
