For a truly inclusive election

April 18 will be a momentous occasion for close to 200 residents of the Institute of Mental Health in Chennai as some of them will be casting their vote for the first time ever, while others will have regained their right to vote after years.

The Election Commission of India has even assured setting up of a polling booth for the residents on the premises. Earlier this year, activists worked with the ECI to get voter identity cards for some residents of the Calcutta Pavlov Hospital. 

These developments are significant as the ECI and medical professionals, responding to the advocacy of activists have moved to ensure that persons with psychosocial disabilities in institutions do not forgo their right to vote.

While some have questioned whether a person with psychosocial disabilities or intellectual disabilities can vote, there is nothing in the law barring them from doing so. Only persons who have been declared as being of ‘unsound mind’ by a court are barred from voting.

Any person, for health or age-related reasons, may be of ‘unsound mind’ for a period of time.

However, persistent stigma has ensured that persons with psychosocial or intellectual and other disabilities are frequently barred from voting by authorities who take it upon themselves to decide their ‘fitness’ to vote.

Persons with such disabilities living in institutions also face the difficulty of lacking an address that can be used in their voter id cards. 

In the context, the ECI in recent years has taken serious efforts to ensure elections are truly inclusive. It has ensured voting rights to persons living in homeless or night shelters and now, those living in institutions by allowing them to use the facility’s address as their own without necessarily including the name of the facility.

It has also ensured voting rights for homeless persons on the streets.

While the ECI still has a long way to go in making elections truly accessible, especially for the elderly and those with physical disabilities, these efforts, especially if expanded, will not only challenge the stigma against persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities but will also recognise such persons as stakeholders in their country who have a role in deciding its future.