Election Commission pushes for inclusive, accessible electoral processes

New Delhi, The Election Commission on Wednesday made a renewed push for inclusive and accessible electoral processes by discussing collaboration with Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities for strengthening of infrastructure at polling stations. During the interaction with top officials of the department, which comes under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar emphasised on achieving a new normal of enabling environment in the entire election process ecosystem, from registration to voting, to nudge persons with disablities (PwDs) for their active involvement and participation.

During the meeting, discussions were held on various aspects of collaboration for strengthening of infrastructure at polling stations, including accessible toilets, tactile tiles and temporary props, exchange of available data for targeted interventions and outreach.

Development of appropriate outreach content, stakeholder engagements with national-level institutes working in the domain, and training and capacity building of election officials, also came up for discussions, the poll panel said.


Kumar said PwD achievers and trained individuals suggested by the department will be associated as partners to supplement the Election Commission's (EC) efforts of making polling areas more PwD-friendly.

CEC said specific training of polling personnel will be conducted for due sensitisation.

He said contrary to popular perception, "divyangjans" actually are more able and their development of inner senses often outweighs their impediments.