Being ‘homeless’ and getting inked

What are the voting rights of the mentally ill? What does the law say? Getting a voter’s ID card for the homeless and mentally is a big challenge as many of them do not have a valid id card. There’s also lethargy from local officials in helping them get an ID card

In the 2021 Assembly elections, 49 residents of Aadharavu Trust, a registered non-profit working with individuals with mental illness, got to exercise their political franchise.

A big achievement for members of the Trust as a majority of the residents are homeless and have no proper identity proof to make them eligible to apply for a voter’s identification card.

D. Kotteswara Rao, founder and managing trustee of the Trust, says in such cases the local village officer has the power to tender a letter saying that such a person has been under the care of a home/shelter and must be allowed to apply for a voter’s ID card.

But the process is far from easy.

Obtaining the necessary permission, contacting the personnel entrusted with the issue of voter card, facilitating the paperwork, and coordinating with the stakeholders makes the process challenging. NGOs working in this area say lethargy among local officials is another reason why only a small population of the homeless and mentally ill get their voter’s ID card number.

Despite running behind officials for the last six months, Rao says he has not been successful in having this process initiated for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections.

“The Collector directed our representation to the district differently abled officer who in turn directed us to the tahsildar in-charge of elections,” says Kotteswara Rao, who is assistant director, Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) in Chennai.