Over 1.77 Lakh specially-abled deprived of voting rights in J&K

JAMMU: Forget about taking measures to make the road to polling booths accessible for the specially-abled, if reports are to be believed, around 1.77 lakh specially-abled in the state won't even get to excercise their franchise in the upcoming general elections, despite the tall claims of the government to ensure maximum participation.

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K, it seems, has adopted causal approach towards the specially-abled persons. The commission’s special summary revision of 2019, claims 29,305 Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) flagged on ERO Net.

As per the census of 2011, the total population of specially–abled persons in Jammu and Kashmir are 3,61,153. Out of the total population, 66,448 are visually impaired, 4,096 deaf, 18,681 speech impaired, 58,137 are suffering from problems of movement, 16,724 mental retardation, 15,669 mental Illness, 66,957 with ‘any Other’ and 44,441 with multiple disabilities.

“Out of the total population 30 percent fall below 18 years of age, who are not eligible for voting while remaining population is eligible,” an official said, adding “If the same criteria is applied to the total population, the specially-abled voters will be approximately 2.40 lakh”.

As per the special summary revision of 2019 by Election Commission of India (ECI), there are only 29,305 PWDs voters in Jammu and Kashmir. If this figure is deducted from total estimated voters then the remaining eligible voters are 2.10 lakhs.

Even if one keeps 32,393 people suffering from mental retardation as well as mental illness out of ambit of ‘eligible’ voters, there are still at least 1.77 lakhs PWDs voters who are deprived of their franchise in the upcoming polls.

“We are not considered as vote bank by the politicians, so we are not enrolled properly,” a Kashmir based activist working for specially-abled persons and journalist Javed Ahmed Tak told The News Now.
“The population of persons with disabilities has increased many fold after 2011 due to border skirmishes and conflict in Kashmir,” he added.

Apart from this, Tak said that due to lack of awareness specially-abled person are not enrolled.
“Despite the Election commission has taken initiative to enroll PWDs but their website is not accessible. “For instance,” he said, “the visually impaired person cannot mark him as PWDs due absence of audio files and similar is being faced by blind person.”

When asked about fewer enrollments of PWDs in voting list, Anil Koul, Additional Chief Electoral Officer, said, “The apprehensions have been noted by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The same have been forwarded to the District Election Officers (DEOs) and we are expecting their replies shortly”.