---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: avinash shahi <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2014 11:50:31 +0530 Subject: The Statesman: Visually challenged demand Braille ballot in JNU To: jnuvision <[email protected]>
Dear All Our struggle to get Braille ballot will go on and let us be united to take this challenge in unison. I'm trying to seek cooperation from friends who work in media in this regard. Some of the students have suggested iff we are not provided Braille ballot there is no use voting with the help of agent where our secrecy and privacy are violated. Petty excuses will not deter us for demanding our basic democratic right which has been denied to us for long. Here is a Statesman's report which appeared today. I'd urge to share this report on your FB and Twitter so that our cause is not only known to the world; but Election Commission do some serious introspection for facilitating secret voting right to us. http://www.thestatesman.net/news/75698-Visually-challenged-demand-Braille-ballot.html New Delhi, 4 September Days before student union elections in Jawaharlal Nehru University, visually challenged students held a protest at the JNU campus demanding Braille ballot to enable them to vote freely and independently. There are more than 60 such students in the JNU campus from various departments. In earlier elections, they cast their votes through their own agents or with the help of members of the election committee (EC). However, this time they want to cast their votes independently without anyone's help. "Neither political parties nor poll panel are concerned about how to ensure secret voting for blind students. When the members of JNU Visually Challenged Forum placed their demand before EC, they cited some petty reasons for not making any arrangements for Braille ballot," said Avinash Shahi, PhD scholar at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, JNU. "In fact in the Lok Sabha elections this year we were provided Braille ballots and the EVMs also had Braille buttons," added Shahi. According to members of the JNU Visually Challenged Forum, the vote that is cast through agents lacks secrecy and credibility. In many cases they are also misguided. In such a situation a Braille ballot is a must for them, they said. The election committee, however, is not in favour of the Braille ballot. "First of all, the Braille ballot is too costly and with our limited funds it is not possible to arrange for one in this short span of time," said Kumar Morya, chairperson of the poll panel. The election committee suggested that the visually challenged students cast their votes with the help of their own trusted agents. While the controversy rages on, the election committee has expressed its inability to install the Braille ballot. "Most of the visually challenged students are incapable of studying Braille, so if we install the Braille ballot, then, too, most of them have to take the help of other people to cast their votes. We have assured them every kind of help for casting their votes secretly," said Arvind Panday, member of the EC. "Also, members of the EC are mostly graduation and post graduation students, so we have limited time for making these arrangements after coping with our studies," added Pan -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
