5-Km Trek Through Forest, Maoist Drones Above: How Poll Officers Keep Democracy Ticking

They cross glaciers, lug electronic voting machines up mountains on their backs, and work in dangerous areas to ensure every last citizen can cast their ballot in the world's largest democracy. Polling booth workers have, fittingly, been honoured with the title of NTDV's Indian Of The Year in the 2024 edition of the network's marquee event.

Receiving the award on behalf of the polling booth workers were Radha, a poll worker from the Velachery Assembly segment in South Chennai, Antiya Minz, a booth-level officer from Palamu in Jharkhand; Rahila Rafique from Khansahib Assembly constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, Suraj Singh, presiding officer from Losain in Jammu and Kashmir; T Rama Rao, presiding officer from a booth in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; Tikaish Kumar Sahu, presiding officer from Kanker district in Chhattisgarh; and Chelo Lima, presiding officer from Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. The representatives included a transgender polling officer. 

Speaking about the challenges that polling workers face while organising elections, Mr Sahu, who was working in Kanker district in Chhattisgarh, said they trekked through dense jungles and had Maoist drones hovering above them.

"Conducting elections in our polling booth is fairly challenging. We had to leave home three days before the elections and were dropped to a Border Security Force (BSF) camp in a helicopter. We then had to trudge through dense jungles for 5 km to reach the booth. When we were walking to the booth, we could see Maoist drones observing us from above. But we had security cover and we managed to conduct the election successfully, registering a voter turnout of 71 per cent," he said. 

Antiya Minz from Palamu in Jharkhand, who also helped conduct elections in an area affected by Maoist violence, said she and her colleagues spent a lot of time educating villagers about the importance of their right to vote. 

"We had to travel 20 km to reach the booth and cross streams using all available means, including tractors," she said. 

Boats, Helping Tribals

Presiding Officer T Rama Rao from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and his colleagues had to use a boat to get to their polling station in Dugong Creek. 

"We face challenging terrain and it is difficult to reach polling booths but the administration and the Election Commission helped us. The area is home to the particularly vulnerable Onge tribe. I already worked as a teacher in a school in the area and the administration and tribal welfare department helped us reach every tribe. They don't have much experience casting votes because they only do so for general elections. Voting using EVMs is also a tough task for them. But we saw a voter turnout of 94%," he said.

'Inclusion Key To Democracy'

Transgender polling officer M Radha from Chennai said inclusion is key to a successful democracy and that she has been working to ensure that more transgender voters exercise their right.

"The Constitution provides equal voting rights to all and the inclusion of transgender voters has become the need of the hour," she said

Suraj Singh was part of a polling party that had to trek 17 km to get to their booth in Jammu and Kashmir's Losain, crossing forests and glaciers. 

"We had to cross glaciers and pass through areas with sliding zones and shooting stones. Snow was falling and there was no electricity in our booth. Language was also a challenge, but we still managed to conduct polling successfully," Mr Singh said.