CHENNAI: In 2011, when A Kavitha from Navamal Kapperi village in Villupuram district went to file her nomination for the local body polls, she was rejected citing disability (hearing and speech impairment). A decade later, Kavitha is now contesting for the same post (ward councillor). Moreover, her father VR Thangarasu, who is also a person with disability, is also contesting for the post of ward councillor. They have been allotted key and comb symbol, respectively.
However, they are not alone. A total of 40 people with disabilities will be contesting for the posts of village panchayat ward councillors, district and union ward councillors in the rural local body polls in the nine reconstituted districts of the State. All of them are part of the December 3 Movement organisation.
The rejection of Kavitha’s nomination triggered statewide protests with activists demanding the State to do away with the subsection in the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994, that prohibited people with hearing and speech impairments from contesting polls.
Following a series of protests, on November 15, 2012, the government brought an amendment to the Act and removed deaf and mute persons from Subsection 3 of Section 33 that states no such person shall be qualified for election as a member or president or chairman of a panchayat.
“This is the first step on a long journey. We wish to foray further into politics in the coming years. Currently, contesting itself feels like an achievement,” said Thangarasu. Another contestant, A Thamilarasi, said she would fight for a five per cent land reservation for PwDs if she won the election. “The elections would give us a voice that went unheard for years.” TMN Deepak from the December 3 Movement said, “These rural polls will take the community a long way.”