Shoddy
experience for disabled -EC’s Promises Fall Flat;
Ramps
Missing At Several Booths
New
Delhi: What can a broken wooden door plastered over
some steps with cement mean to you? To the average
wheel-chair-using voter it is finally an acknowledgement
of his existence – no matter how primitive the quality
of construction, how evasive the attitude.
While
disabled voters still preferred to stay away from polling
booths those who ventured out said the experience was
worth it. “It really felt good casting the vote in
a dignified manner. I could also cast my vote without
assistance because of the EVM,’ said Sanjeev Sachdeva,
a wheel-chair-user who suffers from a locomotor disorder.
While
Sachdeva sounded upbeat, the experience of most disabled
voters who ventured out was far from perfect. Ramps
at most polling booths were shoddily constructed and
separate queues for the physically–challenged as promised
by the EC unheard of.
At
many places ramps were missing completely. The situation
was the worst in Outer Delhi and Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha
constituency, but even in upmarket South Delhi things
were no better.
If
a polling booth in Bhatti Mines was located on bumpy
ground 500 m away with no ramp, another at Deshbandhu
College in kalkaji did not have a ramp either. In fact
voters were left to contend with a fight of stairs.
In Okhla Industrial Area Phase-II, 11 polling booths
were placed in one school building that had one ramp
at the entrance, while polling booth numbers 71 and
74 remained inaccessible due to a fight of stairs.
Most
ramps appeared to be hurriedly constructed without any
thought to specifications for making them user-friendly.
At Katwaria Sarai (polling booth number 17) a ramp had
been “constructed” by heaping a pile of bricks and some
mud. “Cement was not used. I was scared I would fall
if I took the ramp,” said a voter.
Apart
from NDMC areas where proper ramps were constructed,
things were much the same at most places. Ramps were
either too steep or too slippery to be used. “One does
not want to break a bone for casting one’s vote,” said
a voter.
Source: The Times of India
Date: 11th May 2004
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