TAMLUK: "I can’t read Braille. Had I got the opportunity to learn it, would I beg in local trains?,” asked Nuruddin Sheikh while counting his day’s earnings with his slender fingers. He clearly separates the Rs 5 and the Rs 1 coins. “Rs 1 coins are in plenty,” he chuckled, getting up to return home.
Nuruddin, a resident of a village near Tamluk, is one among many visually impaired voters who are unable to read their voter details on Braille-imprinted voter slips to be issued for the Lok Sabha by-election in the Tamluk constituency in West Bengal slated for November 19.
For the first time, the Election Commission will issue voter slips in Braille script to 788 visually impaired voters in ten blocks of the Tamluk and the Haldia sub-divisions of the constituency for the by-election. The name of the voter, his/her photo, address, booth number and other details will be imprinted in the voter slip. The details will also be given at the booth. Officials are being trained for the initiative.
However, the new initiative would mean nothing for many of the visually impaired voters who can’t read Braille. “I take help of my son to reach the booth and vote,” Shampa Sen of Durgachak, Haldia said. Due to her illiteracy, once again she has to take the help of her son to get her voting details. Census 2011 states that those visually impaired who can’t read braille are considered as illiterate.
Though data on literacy rates among visually impaired voters of the constituency is not available, special educators have only recently been deployed in selected schools of Purba Medinipur district, which coincides with the Tamluk constituency. The elder generation of the constituency have already missed the chance to learn Braille.
“Unless learned at a younger age, it is very difficult for elders to comprehend the complex Braille codes. Authorities cannot assume every visually-impaired person to automatically be an expert of Braille. According to some estimates, there are over 15 million blind people in India, of which 2 million are children. Of them, only 5 per cent receive any form of education. Special schools teaching Braille are even fewersaid a professor of Centre for Disability Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.