Revision of Braille lettering in EVM hailed

In RK Nagar by-election last year, city’s disability rights activists noticed that the current braille lettering system on the EVM machines caused untold confusion. Smitha Sadasivan, a member of Disability Rights Alliance (DRA), explained, “The candidate sheet will be provided in Braille to the voter and corresponding number will be stuck in the ballot. The problem occurs when there is more than one EVM machine - where the first machine will have 01-16 lettering in braille but the next machine, which starts from 17 and next will have 17-32 list of candidates but the Braille lettering on the machine will be 01-16. Current system has Braille stickers from 17-32 stuck next to the pre-existing braille numbers of 01-16 on the machine, causing immense confusion. We have been pushing for a revision in the braille lettering on EVM machines.”

A directive issued by the Election Commission of India recently outlined the revision, where even on the second ballot unit, the numbering will start from 01, instead of continuing from the first ballot unit. “In case, number of contesting candidates including NOTA exceed 16 and more than 1 balloting unit is used at a polling station, a separate dummy ballot sheet shall be prepared for each ballot unit in the following manner. Serial numbers in each dummy ballot sheet shall be from 01-16 i.e. if number of contesting candidates are 19 including NOTA, the serial number for candidates in the first dummy ballot sheet shall be numbered 01-16 as mentioned on the ballot paper of first ballot unit. For contesting candidates at serial number 17-19 of ballot unit 2, serial numbers shall start again from 01 on second dummy ballot sheet.

“Braille stickers identifying the ballot unit number will be printed and fixed on the top middle part of the machine,” stated the letter.

City disability rights activists are also seeking the braille candidate sheet in regional languages too. There have been several initiatives taken by disability rights groups across the city to make all polling booths accessible, working in liaison with the State Election Commission and the Greater Chennai Corporation.