Several initiatives undertaken for inclusive Elections : CEO

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Himachal Pradesh Manessh Garg today here informed that to ensure inclusive elections under the guidance of Election Commission of India (ECI) the Department has taken several initiatives to ensure greater participation of all categories of voters during the recently concluded Lok Sabha Elections (LSE). He said that in Himachal Pradesh, a total of 5645579 electors, which includes 57775 Persons with Disabilities (PwD) voters, were enrolled for Lok Sabha Election (LSE) 2024.

He said that according to the guidelines of the ECI, a total of 7992 polling booths established across the State were provided with the assured minimum facilities including accessibility for PwDs for recently held parliamentary elections. Out of these 28, were solely managed successfully by PwD employees. To encourage the greater participation of the PwD and elderly voters, facilities viz., pick and drop, wheelchairs, volunteers for assistance of PwD, elderly voters were provided at the polling stations. He said that 10634 PwD and 29921 elderly voters above the age of 85 years also availed the home voting facility.  He said that apart from assured minimum facilities at polling stations, 2524 wheelchairs and as many as 656 requests of pick and drop were entertained across the state to ensure greater participation for a stronger democracy.  

He added that the database of PwDs has been updated with the help of records maintained by the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment/Hospitals. These lists of PwDs were circulated down to the level of concerned Booth Level Officers (BLO) so that they could help them in enrolment and subsequent motivation to participate in the electoral process.

Further CEO said that Special drives were organized to enroll PwD students in colleges with the help of Campus Ambassadors.  The department also made optimum use of local All India Radio and Doordarshan programmes focused on PwDs to spread electoral awareness. He said that the department made special arrangements for identification of centenarians and assigning them as role models in their polling station area to motivate masses to participate in the electoral process.

Also, special posters were prepared with the help of Composite Regional Centre (CRC), Sundernagar for providing guidance on key signs for communication with hearing impaired persons. Poster for DOs and Don’ts for the polling parties for interactions with different categories of PwDs were also prepared besides sensitizing them through training programmes. He said that for awareness and sensitizing PwDs, street plays and rallies were also organized to ensure their participation in the elections.