Seventeen-year-old Sandya woke up around 5 a.m. on Sunday, put on her uniform, plaited her hair into two, boarded an e-rickshaw to her school and all this for one reason: to help people cast their votes.
Like Sandya, hundreds of school students volunteered at different polling stations across Delhi and were seen helping senior citizens, differently abled and wheel-chair bound. Sandya’s polling station had seven such students.
As Mitlesh Saxena, 81, entered the government school in New Ashok Nagar with the help of a walking stick, Sandya was quick to reach out to her and take her to the polling booth. As Ms. Saxena, sat inside her car after Sandya dropped her off, she said, “The kids helped me a lot. There was not this much help last time, but I did not ask her name.”
Sandya, whose father is an e-rickshaw driver, said she had helped more than 10 senior citizens and she also enjoyed greeting people with flowers who came to the station. All voters were given red roses when they entered the polling booth, as it was model polling booth. As the students gathered, Sandya, told her friend in a hushed voice: “My feet are hurting. I haven’t sat anywhere after coming here.”
Test of mettle
At Gargi Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Green Park, Suchitra and Prerna, both Class XII students, were volunteering for the polling day and it turned out to be a test of their mettle. “This experience has taught me one important thing — how to deal with people,” said 17-year-old Suchitra, who was helping a steady flow of wheelchair-bound voters after reaching the polling station at 7 a.m..
As fatigue started setting in by noon, Suchitra, sitting at a shaded public waiting area said, “Different people come with different mood. Some are short-fused, others understand. I have learned to handle most of them today”.
At Zeenat Mahal government school in North East Delhi’s Jaffrabad, Zoya, Nargis, Zeba, Shafiya, Samar, Kulsum, Nikhad, were elated to be a part of the election process at the age of 16.
The girls said that they underwent a day-long training to understand how to help the differently abled.
“We had gone to Delhi University’s Ambedkar College where they trained us how to operate wheelchairs, to communicate with the elderly, differently abled and also pregnant women,” said Nargis. Zoya quickly chipped in and said that the girls feel very “lucky” to be selected by their schools to become volunteers.
“I guess we were selected based on our participation in extracurricular activities... Our parents are also very proud. We came to school around 6 a.m.,” she said. While the girls said that they were unsure of their views on politics, they “just want to live in a developed and educated country”.
