When Kerala’s bank officers went on poll duty

As part of the government’s postal ballot facility for the elderly, disabled and COVID-affected, special teams went door to door to help people cast their vote

April 30, 2021 02:09 pm | Updated 02:09 pm IST

Officials on election duty hand over postal ballots to a senior citizen in Kollam, Kerala, last month.

Officials on election duty hand over postal ballots to a senior citizen in Kollam, Kerala, last month.

“There was a power cut when we entered the house and it was really hot. But a man came running with a vishari (hand-held fan) and started fanning us when we began to set up the voting compartment for his grandfather,” says Anuranjan, a bank officer in Palakkad who was part of a team assigned ‘absentee voter’ duty prior to the just-concluded Assembly elections in Kerala. For many like Anuranjan, these visits went much beyond an election-time task.

The Election Commission of India implemented special postal ballot facility for senior citizens above 80 years, the physically challenged, COVID-positive people, and those in quarantine. The facility that was introduced for COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine during the Kerala local body elections of December 2020 was extended to the other categories also, totalling an estimated 4.02 lakh voters in the State.

Five-member teams consisting of a polling officer, a polling assistant, a police officer, a videographer and a micro-observer went door to door to help these people cast their votes a week before voting day. On an average, each team covered up to 100 houses, visiting a maximum of 20 per day, depending on terrain and accessibility. Anuranjan says he got a chance to visit the heritage Agraharams (Brahmin settlements) of Kalpathy because of the ‘special’ voters.

“Many an elderly felt triumphant,” says Sr. Sheeba Andrews, assistant professor at Providence Women’s College, Kozhikode. She was the presiding officer for booth nos. 62 to 66 in the Elathur constituency in the district. “Being a nun who has renounced my own family, I found myself considering each of those households as my own,” she told her team members. “They were so happy. For many of these people living a lonely life, having a group of people visit them is in itself a special feeling. ‘We must be so important for you to take this trouble for us,’ a grandmother beamed as neighbours gathered around the house to watch the process. A 97-year-old woman listened to us very intently, like a kindergarten student, while we explained the procedure,” she says.

For all its euphoria, the officials witnessed some heated moments too. In the Aroor constituency of Alappuzha, the team was taken to the backyard of a house as soon as they announced their presence. “Look at this broken compound wall,” a man gestured. “It has been months since a coconut tree fell on it and the Panchayat promised they would repair it. My father will cast his vote only after that is done!”

A senior citizen couple casts their vote at home via postal ballot facility in Chennai.

A senior citizen couple casts their vote at home via postal ballot facility in Chennai.

According to Prakash (name changed), a senior bank manager who served as the micro-observer in the team, there was emotion as well as humour and politics involved in the whole process. Some voters extended their hands and asked for their pension amount immediately after voting, he says. “Wasn’t it a health risk for the vulnerable groups and us officials too, to be visiting homes in the time of a pandemic?” he ponders.

Some elderly voters were more diligent than the officials themselves: “‘Where is the sealed ballot box?’ a man asked me, refusing to hand over the sealed envelope to the polling officer. How do we know it reaches the election commission, he asked,” Prakash laughs. Anuranjan shares a similar memory: an old gentleman asked why his finger was not being inked. “How do you ensure I don’t vote at the polling booth too later?”

Deepak P.K., an officer at the Mungilmada branch of Canara Bank in Palakkad, talks about an elderly woman who, despite being very weak, stood up from her chair to hand over the envelope containing the vote sheet. She said it was sacred. Deepak and his team went around the Nenmara constituency in the district in scorching heat. There were 2,100 registered special voters divided among 24 teams. It was as high as 40 degrees Celsius on some days and they mostly had teachers as polling officers who were also busy with preparations for the Class X examinations that were to take place after the elections.

“We had to walk across paddy fields in remote villages like Pallassana. If nobody was home, we videographed the locked door and went there again another day to ensure the residents were indeed away. But it was a rewarding experience for all of us. I went to the house of a woman voter who was born in 1921 and her son, in 1938,” says Deepak.

In one particular incident, the son of an elderly woman refused to let her vote though she wanted to. “We had to convince him that it was her right,” says Deepak. At the same time, at least a handful of elderly voters were too weak to make an informed decision. Aswathy Gopan of Kerala Gramin Bank feels that enlisting only those who genuinely want to vote at home will go a long way in saving valuable resources. “Many of the voters we visited in the Melmuri region of Malappuram preferred going to the booth,” she says.

All of these officers highlight the role of booth-level officers or BLOs in ensuring smooth polling. Rathnamani, BLO and an Anganwadi worker, helped Deepak’s team navigate the Thempallam Scheduled Caste colony in Palakkad within a day. “I know each and every house there,” says the 55-year-old, in charge of two Anganwadis that cover the nutritional/ social needs of more than 500 families. “It gave me great satisfaction to see the old people vote though it was hectic work amidst distribution of voters’ slips before the election day,” she says.

Anganwadi and ASHA workers form the backbone of welfare schemes but their salaries still remain incommensurate with their responsibilities. “I did get paid for the field work but am yet to get the wage for facilitation desk duty on poll day,” she says. Anganwadi workers help update electoral rolls following deaths, marriages, and address change; get forms filled for ID cards; assist in verification process; and distribute the cards from house to house.

An author and journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram, the writer explores Kerala’s political history.

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