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NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 5 Bridging Barriers, Enabling Participation: Ensuring Universal Franchise — LET’S EXPLORE

Book page 121 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Discuss in groups — What role do such measures play in a democracy? Do you know of anyone who benefited from these improved accessibility measures? How might they increase voter participation in your neighbourhood? How can technology assist?
Answer

Their role is to close the gap between having the right to vote and being able to use it. Universal franchise on paper means nothing to a voter who is 95 years old and cannot reach a booth three kilometres away, or to a blind voter who cannot read a ballot, or to a wheelchair user facing a flight of steps. The measures listed in the chapter turn a right into a usable right.

What the ECI actually did (page 121, and shown in Fig. 5.6 on page 122):

  • Electoral officials travel to remote locations so that every citizen can exercise their democratic right — including, as the caption to Fig. 5.6 records, organising a polling station for a single woman voter.
  • In 2024, for the first time, the elderly and people with disabilities could cast their votes from home.
  • Postal voting was available for a specific category of voters.
  • Braille-enabled voter cards, and app-based requests for assistance including wheelchairs and ramps.
Why this is a democratic question and not just a convenience: if the elderly, the disabled and people in remote areas vote less than others, then legislatures hear less from them — and policies drift towards the groups that do turn out. Accessibility measures keep the electorate a true picture of the people. That is the same principle as universal franchise itself, carried into practice.

How they might increase participation in your neighbourhood — and this is the part to survey, not guess:

  • Ramps, seating and a shaded queue make a long wait bearable for the very old.
  • Home voting removes the single biggest barrier for a bedridden voter — the journey.
  • Booths on the ground floor, and volunteers to help, mean a family need not choose between taking a grandparent to vote and going to work.
  • Simply knowing that these facilities exist matters: many people do not vote because they assume they cannot.

How technology can assist: app-based requests for a wheelchair or a ramp; SMS and app alerts about polling date, booth location and queue length; online checking and correction of your name in the voter list; braille and audio-enabled information; and the EVM–VVPAT combination itself, which lets a voter confirm the vote without needing to read a long ballot paper.

Method for the group task: ask two or three older neighbours (a) whether they voted last time, (b) if not, what stopped them, and (c) whether they knew about home voting or postal voting. Record the answers as a small table. Sample answer: “My grandmother, who is 84 and cannot walk far, voted from home in 2024 after an official visited to record her request. She had not voted since 2014.” Write your own version from a real conversation — do not invent one.
Q2.
If you have access to the internet, visit the ECI website (https://www.eci.gov.in/persons-with-disabilities). Read and identify the various interventions that the ECI has taken to facilitate voting by people with disabilities.
Answer

This is a research activity, so here is the method first, then what a complete answer should contain.

Method: open the page, and read it looking for four kinds of intervention — (i) getting to the booth, (ii) getting inside it, (iii) casting the vote, and (iv) information before polling day. Note each one in your own words with a short line on which barrier it removes. That last column is what turns a list into an answer.

Kind of barrierInterventions the chapter itself namesWhat to look for on the ECI page
Reaching the boothHome voting for persons with disabilities and the elderly (from 2024); postal voting for a specific category of voters; officials travelling to remote locationsFree transport to the polling station; priority entry so a disabled voter need not stand in a long queue
Entering the boothApp-based requests for assistance, including wheelchairs and rampsRamps at every polling station, ground-floor booths, accessible toilets, volunteers on duty
Casting the voteBraille-enabled voter cards; the EVM with its VVPAT slipBraille on the EVM ballot unit; the option of a companion for a voter who cannot mark the vote; sign-language help
InformationThe ECI’s own accessibility pages and appVideos with sign language and subtitles; the accessibility app through which a request can be booked in advance
Why the ECI treats this as its own duty: the right under Article 326 belongs to every adult citizen. If a disabled citizen cannot use it, the failure is the system’s, not hers. So the Commission — not the voter — is expected to remove the barrier. This is the reasoning behind the chapter’s sentence that the ECI has taken measures “to ensure no voter is left behind”.
If you do not have internet access: you can still answer well from the chapter. Write down the five interventions the book itself names (home voting, postal voting, braille-enabled voter cards, app-based requests, wheelchairs and ramps), and add what you have actually seen at a polling station near you. Then check your list against the website when you can.
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