 reportage, criminality, citizen rights, technology design, constitutional powers, and now disability rights. To introduce Smita, Smita Sadashivan is an accessibility consultant to the election commission. She's based in Chennai. She's an accessibility auditor, conducts workshops on gender and sexuality, legal aid for persons with disabilities, sensitization for judges and magistrates, and raises awareness about universal health coverage. Over to you then, Smita. Thank you, channel. Hello, everyone. It is a pleasure to meet you all and especially to discuss about, you know, the facilitation for people with disabilities in the electoral process. And it has been a great work and a passionate work for people with disabilities for the disability activists as such. And yeah, can you share the screen, channel? Thank you very much. So next slide. So election commission of India have been very particular that no voter to be left behind. And that includes people with disabilities also, you know, commission is focusing on all the marginalized groups, all the minority groups to be included. And there is no doubt about it. And there is no, you know, other way about it. And every word counts is the passion and the motto of election commission. And with regard to persons with disabilities and their inclusion, their accessibility, commission have been doing a lot of work way back from 2004 onwards. You know, there was a Supreme Court verdict in 2004, saying that there should be ramps in all polling stations and polling officials should be sensitized and a companion should be allowed along with a voter with disability who is using a wheelchair. And a person with disabilities wheelchair, his own wheelchair should be allowed. You know, that was the first time that people with disabilities were allowed to use their own wheelchairs inside, you know, the polling station. So this verdict came as a milestone verdict in the disability movement. And based on this verdict, commission have taken a lot of steps and they immediately issued, you know, directions to CEOs chief electoral officers of all states from 2004. And they did not stop with 2004. They kept issuing these instructions again and again and again. And they kept revising it from 2004 onwards. And there was also a mention of assistance to be provided to voters with speech and hearing impairment. And apart from this, you know, there is this blind movement, the people with visual impairment who asked for braille signages to be included in the EVM, electronic voting machine. And this was also tested in, first in Andhra Pradesh. And then in 2005, 2006 and 2008, different constituencies of India had the elections. And in all those elections, the braille signages were tested. And, you know, to involve more and more technology into the EVM itself was a great challenge. But Election Commission of India took it up with great spirit. And they provided all the, you know, facilitations, technological facilitations for persons with disabilities. And this braille signage was then generalized to all constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. And from 2009 onwards, every EVM we can see it is having braille signages in the right side corner. Then in 2009, the commission gave an instruction specifically for the need for wide publicity of the facilities for voters with disabilities, because it is not enough if we have facilitations, people should know. And so there is a requirement for wide publicity, which was actually recognized by the commission. And they also issued a notification on that particular point. Then there were again persistent efforts by the Election Commission of India through different other instructions and notifications in 2014 and 2015 onwards. Next slide, Shanthal. And in 2015, what commission did is, they set up a committee, a technical advisory committee, exclusively to discuss and to engage and come up with a lot of technical and other facilitations for people with disabilities. And in 2015, again, there was this FIMBOSA resolution, which happened. FIMBOSA stands for Forum for Election Management Bodies of South Asia. So this is the forum organized by IFES, International Foundation for Electoral Systems. And this forum includes all the election commissions of SAR countries. So all SAR countries election commissioners are members of this FIMBOSA. And every year, one of the SAR countries, one of the FIMBOSA members will hold this FIMBOSA conference. And in 2015, it was Sri Lanka, which held the FIMBOSA conference. And again, organized by IFES, where all the SAR countries election commissioners met together and came together and discussed. And in that conference, the special thing which happened is IFES and Sri Lankan election commission also organized a forum of disability activists from across the world to come up and discuss what is required further in the electoral process to include people with disabilities. And the forum or the disability group came up with a nine point agenda. And that nine point agenda was included in the FIMBOSA resolution. And this particular resolution was signed by a greater forum and signed by all the SAR election commissioners. And of course, Indian commissioner also signed it. And it was Mr. Ropi Robert, ex-election commissioner who signed it. And I was also there, part of the disability consortium. And then the nine point agenda was worked upon by the commission. It is not just the commission signs it and leaves it. And from then onwards, I started working with the commission and gave suggestions on how each point can be strategically evolved and can be implemented. And disability rights alliance where I'm a part, the DRA had a great role, played a major role in strategizing these. And the DRA also came up with different models to showcase the efficiency, the efficient implementation of all these nine point agendas. And then commission took into account all the suggestions and took into account all the models. And they really welcomed the inputs provided by DRA and of course other disability groups. And followed by which we had a great notification in 2016 by the election commissioner of India where it was not only looking at the specific facilities, but to look at the process on which all these facilitations will be set and a monitoring mechanism will be set. So first of it was to appoint a nodal officer in every state for the election commission, for the chief electoral officer's office. And as we mentioned earlier, there is a greater need to create awareness about the specific facilities for people with disabilities for voters with disabilities. So SWEAP, that is SWEAP department division which is carrying out the awareness activities was asked and was directed to come up with accessible mechanisms to in the modes of awareness, creating awareness activities. And apart from that, a greater threshold was given on mapping of persons with disabilities. We know that people with disabilities are there. They are all voters with voters. But how do we know which voter is a person with disability? Because the electoral role didn't have a marking of persons with disability. And if we want to clearly set certain facilitations in certain polling stations based on the requirement in that particular facility booth, then we need the numbers. We need to know the categories of visibility for that particular booth. So for this mapping is essential and based on that, that instruction was also given to all the CEOs, chief electoral officers. And then when people with disabilities were having difficulty in accessing the enrollment camps, so the enrollment camps came to their institutions, came to their place where it is accessible. So different mechanisms were followed to make the enrollment camps and the enrollment process accessible. And accessible polling stations, that was another agenda earlier. The Supreme Court order mentioned only about ramps, whereas now it is inclusive of the ramps, the Braille candidate sheets, free transport, the wheelchairs being provided at the polling stations and the booth volunteers. So different aspects got into the accessible polling station agenda. And not only that, there should be access to information, polling information. So that was also been instructed and different methods have been tried by different states, by different district or electoral offices to provide information in accessible formats. For example, to come up with accessible posters, which will be distributed in advance to people with disabilities. And accessible posters are being posted, are stuck at the polling station. And there is this accessible demonstration of voting, voting process with the dummy EVM, which actually gave a lot of information and confidence to people with disabilities, especially people with high support needs. And the instruction also included about the need for election websites, the Chief Electoral Officers website, the DEVOS websites to be accessible and different things. Next slide, channel. So there was this another great aspect which happened in 2017 was this RK Nagar election. It was actually a historic election in Tamil Nadu, in Chennai. And when the disability rights alliance pointed out that there are certain lackeys and issues based by people voters with disabilities in this particular constituency and in this particular by election, then the election commission of India, based on DRA's request, came up with different, with a set of instructions, especially for RK Nagar elections. And people with visual impairment were allowed to go and monitor or verify the candidate sheet prior to elections and come up with their inputs. So these kind of opportunities and these kind of mechanisms were involved in RK Nagar elections. And accessibility consultant was appointed by the election commission of India, which is me. And then discussions and training programs on accessible elections were held at the national level and the international level also from 2015 onwards. And in 2018, the National Voters Day theme was announced as accessible elections. And so that was a real breakthrough. And a lot of work happened across the country during that year. We came up with the icons with disabilities in every state and every district who promoted accessible elections for persons with disabilities. And they motivated persons with disabilities to come out and vote. And then the district, state and national consultations happened. So these consultations not only involved officials, but also people with disabilities and civil society organizations, the NGOs, the DPOs and other experts. So everybody came together across the table and discussed what is required? What is there? And what are the gaps? And how can the gaps be addressed? And many things evolved in these discussions, which was taken into account by the election commission and seriously worked out in that year, 2018, and then the following years also. And another important thing which happened in 2018 was to consider the etiquette. Like voters with disabilities are coming to the polling station and our polling officials are also given training. But how to behave or how to deal with the voters with disabilities? So there is a whole lot of etiquette which was considered by the election commission. And this etiquette has been sent to all the chief electoral officers to be followed at the time of elections when voters with disabilities come to vote. And then new notifications came up on wheelchairs to be provided at the polling stations, each every polling station, and both volunteers to be available to help the voters with disabilities and senior citizens and free transport to be provided for voters with disabilities from home to the polling station and back and dedicated parking to be made available at the polling station or closer to the polling station. So these kind of specific notifications were also given and committees were set up at the district level, at the state level and at the national level who would advise the election department who would monitor the process of the electoral process you know to include persons with disabilities and also to work with the commission, to work with the chief electoral officer and the district electoral officer to make the you know make the instructions happen to implement all the circulars and all the notifications. And a strategic framework was released by the election commission in 2018 and apart from this the strategic framework while dealing with different important aspects it specifically mentioned about CSO partnerships, civil society partnership was emphasized and every chief electoral officer's office has civil society organizations as partners who work together in the implementation of accessible facilitations. Then we have the braille epic the voter ID card, the electoral photo ID card is made in braille and also the water slip is made in braille and we also came up with accessible observers you know to while we have general observers and expenditure observers observers were also assigned to observe the accessible facilitations of the electoral process and then the commission came up with the PWD mobile application. This mobile application have undergone a lot of change it keeps on updating it has various features where a person with disability can enroll himself or herself as a person with disability and we can you know we can do all the changes like the change in name or address or any other feature like you can also book for a wheelchair or any other requirement you can ask through the PWD app and this application is being made into you know different languages our national languages and the recent one being Manipuri you know when every language is being added it is requested from the CEO's office from the state to give their respective language code and then it is included in the app and then again the CEO's office the technical team is asked to verify it and you know so it undergoes double verification and after that only it has been released to the public so a lot of updation happens with the PWD app which is the great facilitator for persons with disabilities and recently the postal ballot we all know so when people with disabilities who are who have very high support needs are unable to go to the polling station and they also should be provided the the right to franchise and in this view election commission have considered their requirement and their request and provided this postal ballot facility where the team from the election department will go to the person's house and take their vote in the in the same secret manner and then a lot of you know other discussions happen and every facility that the election commission is bringing in will be a result of you know discussions with persons with disabilities in different workshops in the conferences and consultations basically and the consultation doesn't only happen at the national level it happens straight from the district level and the state level and then it culminates at the national level consultation and apart from this election commission also collaborates with the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities and other departments like the public works department and a lot of you know stakeholder involvement happens then the commission also came up with a polling booth checklist polling booth accessibility checklist because when the the notifications already mentioned about accessible polling stations and there are other notifications to facilitate persons with disabilities you know these were not really meeting the 100% accessibility of a polling station so election commission took that into account in 2001 commission issued a checklist where holistic accessibility of the polling station is being can be monitored and this checklist was sent to 2001 polling states so where you know when there is a ramp the ramp may not may be steep but in the aim of the assured minimum facility checklist there is only between activists I'll come to questions later yeah I saw something in the chat and so you know the ramp may be steep or there may be debris on the way to the ramp or they may there may be some hindrance after the ramp in the on the way to the voting compartment or inside the voting compartment so these kind of issues were taken into account and a holistic checklist is issued by the election commission and apart from that we have the state nodal officers and electoral literacy clubs to be engaging with persons with disabilities to include the facilitations of persons with disabilities and the need for creating wider awareness about these facilities through electoral literacy clubs have also been considered and is being worked out next slide please so while doing all these you know facilitations election commission of India is very conscious of the legal obligations which is top most is the constitution of India and then the united nations convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the symbols are resolution 2015 and of course the supreme court order which came in 2004 then the representation of people's act 1950 and the rights of persons with disabilities act 2016 and the Indian contract act 1872 next slide please so you know from my experience there were certain wow moments you know while working through all these facilitations and with the election commission of India and engaging with about the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the electoral process so you know when the commissioner the election chief election commissioner and his team came to Chennai and we met the DRA team met election commissioners then the the CEC immediately asked us how we would like to be referred to so they did not use any term like you know this is the official term or there are multiple terminologies available about persons with disabilities like the the divyang or the differently able the specially abled or you know special people and challenge to people so different terminologies are available in the society but they gave respect to our preference and our thoughts and the CEC directly asked us how we would like to be preferred to be addressed and we said it is persons with disabilities which is the rights based terminology as provided by the united nation nation's convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and he immediately agreed then then of course the RK Nagar constituency is the specific direction which was given in 2017 based on DRA's appeal it was really a wow moment for us because for one specific constituency if an election commission have agreed to come up with you know a detailed checklist or a detailed direction on accessible elections and then in the election commission of India in all the seven floors we have set up ramps and handrails a lot of research have gone under the process and finally we have succeeded in getting the ramps and handrails and then in 2018 when the National Voters Day team was announced as accessible elections we could realize the the kind of importance that election commission has for you know including people with disabilities and other marzies groups and then the the civil society organizations and the civil society movement being given the importance and you know asked to be engaged with by the chief electoral officers and it is also mentioned in the strategic framework which was released by the commission in 2018 then the access observers being deputed from 2018 onwards and you know election commission come up with the sweep division comes up with awareness films and in their efforts towards coming up with films for people with disabilities for inclusion of voters with disabilities we have different icons giving their you know message messages and the one of the icons is Devanshi Joshi who is a torch bearer for voters with intellectual disabilities and so this shows how much election commission is very conscious in leaving not even a single marzies group even a subgroup within the disability groups and in Chennai we were we were actually successful in working with the local DO and we succeeded in coming up with a polling station exclusively inside the Institute of Mental Health Chennai and there you know many polling stations were in the upper floors and in 2019 election commission straight away brought down 5000 polling stations from upper floors to the ground floor which was a remarkable thing and accessibility cell accessibility division was started in election commission of India from in 2019 and then not just stopping with all these things to recognize the remarkable work done in the area of accessible elections commission is providing awards to not only government officials but also the civil society organizations at the national level and this is also being done at the state level and you know in especially in Punjab all the district and sub-district coordinators from the disability movement who work for accessible elections we're all honored with certificates on national voter state this is really a wow moment for the entire disability sector next slide Chennai so so yes right now yeah yeah despite you know working on all these aspects we do have challenges and election commission is continuing to work on certain challenges which are you know identified by persons with disabilities in different consultations so the ramps to be standardized with handrails and accessible toilets with standardized measurements and you know infrastructure and then if there is any debris or no obstacle at polling station from the gate to the voting compartment and back so this is the objective on which commission is working right now and the EVM table hate or you know the usage of barricades by the police when people with disabilities come in their own vehicles or wheelchairs so they should be sensitized to they are now they are being sensitized to move the barricades so these kind of nitty gritties is what commission is also monitoring right now because they have been the challenges and is the effective sensitization of all field officials on accessibility even you know the field level engineers don't have the the full the holistic view of accessibility and they are also being sensitized and appropriate training has been given to both volunteers and the quality of wheelchairs which is provided for which is you know procured for each polling station is also being monitored now and the grievance reversal system is being made accessible for persons with disabilities and right now how the different ways in which it can be made accessible is being looked at one of the means was to have sign language interpretation and also to have SMS system so these have been incorporated right now and we are also looking at different mechanisms and the data which is a very important aspect is being looked at and different strategies of mapping have been employed by all the chief electoral officers right now we are also looking at a centralized you know system of data mapping and then the enrollment and orders of persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities because these groups essentially are facing a lot of barriers in the society because of the attitude remaining in the society so how to break the social the attitude in a sigma at the society and include people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities and other marginalized groups and to make the websites accessible you know there are certain challenges when the website gets updated then again the accessibility features get lost so how to you know monitor that despite updates the the system is accessible and we are also looking at getting taking feedback from voters with disabilities on their experience and based on that to give better experience for voters with disabilities so so the election commission is looking at this you know area this segment of inclusion of persons with disabilities with with a very high focus and not only persons with disabilities for all other marginalized groups as well and no voter to be left behind as I said earlier is the is the motto of commission which the commission is you know sure is assuring for all our citizens with citizens of the country including a citizens with disabilities and other marginalized groups next slide okay so you know there is the the basic information for persons with disabilities I would just like to touch upon that there are 21 categories of persons with disabilities as specified in the rights of persons with disabilities act 2016 and eligibility age criteria is of course 18 years and more age and we should be an Indian citizen and there should not be any criminal record on on us and of sound mind so when we say sound mind it is not related to any disability sound mind applies to every person with and without disability and enrollment how do we go about it there is form six for in enrollment and it can be got from the voter enrollment centers or ERO AROs office or from both level officers or we can access it from the online from nvsp portal and if we want to delete our name and you know delete our name from the electoral role then we should use form seven and if we need any change then in the information in the roles we need to access form eight and the documents to be provided should be the residential proof of age proof and passport photo for enrollment and we should do the verification in enrollment role for our name periodically and it can be checked through the ECOs website and we can also check it from the VLOs list or the polling booth list and assured minimum facilities which is which is assured for all citizens are accessible polling stations braille candidate sheet medium you know lighting good lighting in the polling station and the signages toilets water drinking water and help this so other facilitations provided specifically for persons with disabilities are priority queue a person will vote over disability need not stand in the queue and wheelchairs are provided at the polling station volunteers will be there to help you parking dedicated parking is available close to the polling station and polling stations should be on the ground floor a companion will be allowed if you want and transfer transport is available for people with disabilities and if a companion has to help you in voting itself then the companion should sign form 148 and you can do wheelchair booking prior to going to polling station or you need not do so both are fine and accessible information on polling is available and the grievance number is 1950 so which goes to the control room and we have the PWD app through all through which also we can raise the issues and the preserving officer is another person at the polling station with whom we can raise any issue if we encounter so this is basically the information basic information which should be you know knowledgeable by any person with disability and any voter so yeah with this I thank one voter one vote for this opportunity and happy to answer any questions I think we have a few questions from Argamay yes am I audible yes yeah I wanted to thank you for the presentation I'm a disabled person myself and it's wonderful to see that these conversations are happening about so that we can ensure full and effective political participation I had one question in almost every conversation I have with any other activist person we always talk about disaggregated data right that's that's something that always comes up so you did talk about how the numbers are important and some data mapping system but I was wondering if we there were also like efforts to get more extensive data around say for example how many disabled voters were actually able to vote in a particular election yeah so yeah thank you correct um thank you very much for the question actually data is very important as you said and even commission is um has taken into cognizance the importance of data and they are looking at multiple levels one is to know the number of persons with disabilities at every polling station so that and with disaggregated data which means you know under what category of 21 disabilities so that we can broadly assess the requirement at the polling station and provide those facilities more or less so for towards this activity election commission is actually mapping persons with disabilities because in the electoral role what we do we just enroll ourselves as a voter till now you know actually for so long we have been doing that only and only right now there is the provision of identifying us as a voter with disability so what happens is recently whoever is enrolling they will enroll as person with disability whereas the previously so many people would have enrolled so how do we find out who have disability and in case if you know people with disabilities don't want to expose their disability that is also fine so with that idea there are two systems which is which is followed one is to map the data of persons with disabilities from other departments like with disability department or the social welfare department or the revenue department because many persons with disabilities may be getting the pension the monthly pension or the scholarships students would get scholarship so if we can map those data and you know match it with the enrollment data then we get we can get a fair amount of person voters with disabilities in specific polling booth area and another thing is to give the the the choice to person with disability to give an opportunity for a person with disability to identify ourselves as a voter with disability which can be done in PWD mobile application we can just go you know download the app and we we can find out our details if you just enter your voter ID card details then so the the epic detail will show the polling booth details everything will show and there will be an option where you can say mark as PWD as a person with disability then that gets you know synced into their system so this is how we are doing the mapping and now there is also a consideration of doing a centralized mapping strategy like a uniform mapping strategy where because different states are doing different methods so how we can go about streamlining the mapping process and and you know get an effective data effective data out of the map data and yes as you said there are different districts which have taken a note of how many voters with disabilities have voted which actually they don't have a system assets but you know they have done it in in the notebook and on the just the paper and pen whereas that idea is also there with the commission that we should actually map the voters with disabilities who have voted and even other than apart from that there is a kind of you know analysis that once the voter votes and with the mapped data we can also identify how many voters with disabilities voted so that approximate number is is being announced at every election after the election is over whereas the appropriate or exact data need to be made available so that strategy is also being worked out by the commission right now. Hope I have answered your question. Yeah thank you. Is there any budgetary provision provided by the ECI to provide different facilities at Polingos or any guidelines issued to the states regarding this so SQ Masood have asked this question. Yes budgetary provision is available and you know polling stations come under the village administration and so every village administration has funds for accessibility and accessible elections so that particular fund can be taken and apart from that commission also provides funds under sweep and different other means so which is also being used for providing all these facilitation for persons with the voters with disabilities and yes guidelines have been issued to chief electoral officers on this so the first question from the audience the impact of this collaboration between activists and ECI also depends on the wholehearted participation of the on-ground staff how does this come about are there workshops and the same engagement to bring this change. Yes you are absolutely right so the on-ground staff is also given you know sensitization and when the consultation happened at the district level that's why the consultations start at the district level all the stakeholders come together the ground staff also come together and you know the multiple stakeholders like the booth level officers and the the local NGOs the local person with disability so everybody come together and discuss and then yes workshops are happening and we have the IDIM India International Institute for Democracy which looks at workshops and they are also holding workshops on you know accessible elections they are not only doing the workshops for our local officials at the ground staff but also to the international you know EMBs as well. I think there's a follow-up question to this okay let me just check I see only two questions can you oh sorry yeah I'll read it then um yeah how does accountability get built into the system so that who will gain from the ECAs work with the activists can see the change like okay I think just about accountability and how yeah so so to build the accountability only you know ECA have come up with structures the three three tire committees the committees start from the assembly constituency level itself the assembly constituencies 2019 okay so you know the assembly constituencies have the accessible election committee which is the working committee and then the district have the accessible elections monitoring committee and then the states have the state steering committee on accessible elections and the national advisory committee so four committees are there and all these committees ensure that the issues are discussed and they are in you know in sync with the needs the challenges and the strategies so that is how you know the reports from the ground level reaches to the next level and finally it culminates to the national level so it is you know that is how accountability is also ensured that people with disabilities have they have their representatives in all these committees and whatever is their requirement their inputs are being taken into consideration and also documented and implemented any other question 2019 polling report yes as I'm correct so so after that it was you know that was taken to the the consideration of to the knowledge of the commission and that was immediately worked out how does okay so it is the yeah that question is part of this polling booth thing fine so that is how you know any issue is being brought to the commission and commission's knowledge whether it comes to me or wherever it comes appears in the social media or it comes to the knowledge of the commission directly then soon after every election we come up with a report where we include you know information from all these areas whether you know we also take in talk on the social media reports and then come up with a report and immediately it is being worked out with the respective CEO and ensure that it is you know any gap is being addressed and if possible if the issue is identified on the day of polling itself and brought to our knowledge we try our maximum to you know ensure remedy on that day itself because that day's polling should be made accessible is is the motto and so 99% of the issues raised during polling on day is actually addressed so Smitha you're saying asking or reporting on social media is an option for example say if I went to a polling booth yeah and I saw that the lamp the ramp was too steep or something sure who would please don't forget to tag the commission or you know any of us so that right and are there other ways of reporting I suppose informing the polling officers itself at the scene yes yes presiding officer you can inform presiding officer and if not presiding officer you can inform the the presiding officer is the immediate authority and after him we can approach the election department the committee the whether it is the district committee of course for polling station you can approach the district committee and members and otherwise the district election department apart from that if there is no you know remedy quickly then you can also come up to the to me or you know to the commission and definitely you know just tag everyone and the remedy would be sorted out would be given immediately on the polling day itself 99% it would be sorted out and there was some other question there is a discussion about e voting system in is this under concentration before easy yes so e voting have been discussed by eci and it is all it has also come up in different consultations as a requirement by certain groups of people with disabilities whereas you know commission is also thinking about the safe you know system around e voting yes the e voting procedures may be safe but like we do net banking or you know other online transactions so they are kind of safe and similarly online system can be made safe but how would the commission know if you are you know subjected to some threat in your personal environment and you are made to vote in somebody's favor so these kind of you know discussions are also happening and the the other thing which everyone will agree is polls polling is a voting is a celebration of democracy so when everybody are celebrating it how do we celebrate it we can we we celebrate it in the country across the streets and there are you know huge waves of celebration and energy across the street which can be seen from you know in person as well as it is captured in the media also so we all agree that and should do we agree to move from this celebration mode because ours is the is the largest democracy in the world and you know we would really we really love this practice of everybody coming together on that day and voting and meeting each other and you know the spirits are high so so that is another question to the public I think there's another question from argument yeah just one more question if there have been best practices in some districts or something like that like you talked about the akina but one has there been any effort to publish those experiences so that we can build on that and maybe try it out across different locations it was published in the media also media reports also at that time it was in 2017 and you know when whenever such good practices come it is also documented at the commissions level and also in the local media recently in 2021 elections we had a through normally district you know coming up with different facilitations for voters with disabilities including tactile you know information guiding information at polling stations and many other things and different districts are trying you know many things and they are they also succeed in that it is all being documented by the commission you can actually get it you know browse it in the commission's website eca.nick.in thank you Smith I had a question have there been any privacy concerns about all the mapping that takes place I know you said that it's voluntary to disclose or not to disclose but you said that there's map there's matching that happens from other sources of data correct so what is happening is wherever the mapping is happening matching from other sources of data it is not being disclosed you know for other purposes I mean to anybody else it is only mapped into the into the system it won't even reflect in the role or you know for us to see so it will be just internally matched so that such facilitations can be arranged you know to assess whether more facilitation to be provided to particular group of persons with disabilities in a particular booth do we need more wheelchairs in a particular booth so these kind of things are you know being worked up with the data and it won't be disclosed outside to anybody nobody can see it I think that's all the questions we have from youtube at least so if you have any closing remarks okay yeah so you know this working on accessible elections have been really a very interesting and very energizing experience for me because you know when you work with an authority who's really open-minded and who is willing to you know understand the requirements from a human rights based approach and provide you know facilitations accordingly in in a human rights model respecting the dignity of people with disabilities and other marginalized groups so we should also ensure that we are updated with whatever facilitations and whatever information the commission the authorities are providing for people with disabilities and marginalized groups and we should do our duty certainly and not just be you know voters but also become ambassadors of you know democracy not only elections but become ambassadors of democracy in your own state in your own homes so start there is my message thank you very much for this opportunity thanks so much Smitha thank you everyone for coming and we'll close a session today