HYDERABAD: Lot of efforts are being taken to make polling booths accessible to persons with disabilities, but are they bearing fruit? In a video that has emerged from Siddipet, a person with locomotive disability is seen describing how ramps laid out at polling booths in Koheda village are not easy to use.
According to Dumbala Venugopal, the man in the video, the ramps are 2 metres in length which it makes it difficult for wheelchairs to navigate. “The length should be at least 3 metres for easy navigation,” says Venugopal, while adding that they lack proper side railings. Accessibility activists say this is because persons with disabilities were not involved in building the infrastructure.
“Infrastructure like ramps require the inputs of the wheelchair users so that the actual comfort can be gauged. However, nowhere are disabled people involved,” noted M Srinivasulu of Network of Persons with Disability Organisations, a nodal organization in the state for disability rights. He further alleged that as per order no. 464 from February 2016, NGOs, and groups working with people with disabilities must be incorporated in providing facilities to the PWD voters, but the same hasn’t been followed. “For authorities it is a bureaucratic work, but for us it is a matter of being rightly represented,” he added.
At present, the task of building ramps has been entrusted to the District collectors and they follow the government prescribed measurements for ramps. “We have not mandated a trial run but all district collectors will work with the PWD voters. Moreover 70% of ramps were already present and so there would be little problem, only around 30% of ramps are required more for polling purpose,” noted B Shailaja, Commissioner of Persons with Disability.