The two all-woman booths set up in Gurgaon constituency for the Haryana Assembly polls on Monday had a mixed staff with male presiding officers. The two all-woman booths set up in Badshahpur Assembly constituency also had both male and female election workers.
The Election Commission of India had started setting up all-woman booths, ‘also called pink booths’, to encourage female voters to exercise their franchise.
Booth No. 71 presiding officer Lakshmi Chand in Gurgaon told The Hindu that it was a designated ‘pink booth’, but two of the four staff were male. “I was told that my booth is an all-woman booth, but there are only two women staff members,” said Mr. Chand. The booth was located in Dronacharya government college on Old Railway Road. Similarly, the all-woman booth at DAV Public School was presided over by Satpal. He denied having any information about his booth, numbered as 62, being all-woman. It had only one woman staff member, Kanta Devi.
In Badshahpur Assembly constituency, the two all-woman booths — 234 and 235 — at a government primary school in Sector 15 Part-I had male staff for “assistance”. Booth no. 235 presiding officer Manisha said that there were two male staff members to assist them.
Seema Wadhawan, presiding officer of booth no. 234, said the male staff was required to stay overnight at the polling booth with the election material. “Since it is not possible for the women staff to stay overnight at the poorly-lit and unsafe polling stations, the male staff is attached with them. The polling is being conducted by the female staff only,” said Ms. Wadhawan. The security staff at all the four pink booths was female.
Many of the polling booths also did not have wheelchairs. At least eight booths at two polling stations in Rajiv Nagar in Gurgaon constituency did not have wheelchairs for the elderly and physically-challenged voters.
District Election Officer and Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri said it was mandatory to have wheelchairs at all polling stations and claimed that the over 100 stations visited by him had the facility. He expressed ignorance about the wheelchairs not being available at Rajiv Nagar polling stations.
