The Gurugram administration’s effort to set up all-woman polling booths, as per the directions of the Election Commission of India, failed to take off as male staff were deployed to assist the women workers at these booths.
Though the district administration had set up eight all-woman polling booths in Gurugram — two each in the four Assembly constituencies of Gurugram, Sohna, Badshahpur and Pataudi — at least three of them, visited by The Hindu, had both male and female staff.
Two of these booths, one each in Gurugram and Badshahpur, had female presiding officers, while the third — booth no. 62 at DAV Public School in Sector 14 — was presided over by a male officer, Dharmendra Roy.
When asked, Mr. Roy said though it was a “Sakhi Booth”, the nomenclature for all-woman booths in Haryana, male staff were present to “assist the woman staff”. Deepali Lamba was the polling officer for the booth.
In Sector 15 Part-I, booth no. 234 at Government Primary School was designated as a “Sakhi Booth”,but this too had male staff members. Downplaying their presence, presiding officer Usha Choudhry said the district administration had handed over the election material and machines to the male staff due to a “goof-up” on Saturday night and therefore they were allowed to sit inside the booth. “It is a goof-up. But they are not helping us,” claimed Ms. Choudhry.
The third all-woman booth, initially to be set up at Sector 47 Community Centre, was later merged with a model polling booth at Delhi Public School in the same sector. Here too, male staff members were deployed to help the female staff. “It is a mix of both male and female staff here,” said Kamlesh Rani, presiding officer, booth no. 259.
An official in the district administration said a woman had never been a presiding officer earlier and the male staff were at the all-woman polling stations to assist them.