HYDERABAD: Despite promises and widespread publicity by the election commission on ensuring differently-abled friendly polling stations, the ground realities were not so comfortable for them. While many polling booths had only one wheelchair, some had none.
The discomfort was not just for those with difficulty to walk, but several with visual problems also complained on not getting braille ballot papers to cast their votes. In some constituency, PwD volunteers complained about not having trained people to communicate with mute persons.
A 65-year-old woman, Sahama, lost her eyesight ten years ago. However, her updated voter ID card does not even mention this. As there were only one wheelchair and no ramp in the polling booth, she had to climb the staircase and was neither provided with any braille ballot papers nor any assistance in polling booth. The not-so-friendly booths also made it worse for several senior citizens. There were several instances recorded where they had to climb the stairs to reach the booths.