Sinrasu fastened the polling units consisting of the ballot unit, control unit and VVPATs to his four donkeys with ease. “I’ve been carrying ‘booth boxes’ since 1977 and before me, my father,” says the 60-year-old man. But, for his four donkeys, it was going to be a two-hour arduous trek up the dry dirt track under the merciless Sun.
Four km up the dirt track, on a 600-metre gradient from the plains is Kotturmalai in Pennagaram constituency in Dharmapuri. For its 70 households and 341 voters, Sinrasu’s donkeys bear the burden of reaching democracy at their doorstep.
“Every election, we load the donkeys with the ballot and control units. This time, there is VVPAT too. We are carrying two polling units, one for use and one as reserve ,” says a zonal polling official. Asked about the usual voter turnout at the Kottumalai polling booth, the official says, “the turnout is 80%. For the people, it (elections) is like a festival.”
“It is a forest terrain, and permissions for a road were not forthcoming. But it will come soon,” says the official. A contiguous extension of Kotturmalai, is Erimalai, another mountain hamlet, where again, donkeys service the State to carry out its constitutional duty. Rani says she could be 30-years-old. But she has been married for 17 years with four daughters. Married off from the plains into Kotturmalai, she does not believe there will ever be a motorable road. “They say, a road will come now or tomorrow. But, it has never come, or never will come.”
Kotturmalai has a part time PDS shop, a government middle school. Rani’s husband Raja says, there is a government health center, but a nurse visits occasionally.“When someone is not well, or has had an operation, or goes into labour, we carry them in a bucket tied to a rope, or just carry them up and down 4 km” says Rani.
They see political parties only in the run-up to every election. “They walk up for our votes. And they come back for the next elections,” she says. Sinrasu ‘s donkeys are a key mode of transport of goods to and from Kotturmalai. “My donkeys carry the ration items (goods meant for Public Distribution System) up to the village, and ride back with the produce (millets) from the village down to the plains.” The administration pays him ₹5,000 for the polling work done by his donkeys.