Chhattisgarh Assembly elections: All-women team to guard 900 polling booths

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has set up 900 all-women polling booths called ‘Sangwari’ in Chhattisgarh to encourage women voters to exercise their franchise in the state Assembly elections.

 “The ECI has set up 10 Sangwari polling centres for women in each assembly constituency in the state,” Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Chhattisgarh, Reena Baba Saheb Kangale said. The entire polling staff, including the police and security personnel, will be women, she said, adding that the move is aimed at ensuring gender equality and greater constructive participation of women in the electoral process.

Women officers and employees will conduct voting in the polling stations and handle security arrangements as well. The Sangwari polling stations will have women presiding officers while other tasks related to voting will also be performed by them. The responsibility of security arrangements at these polling stations will be handed over to women personnel, Kangale added.

The Chhattisgarh CEO said continuous efforts are being made by the ECI to make the assembly general elections more inclusive and participatory for all citizens including women, differently abled, and youth. Besides voting and security, video recording and photography of election-related activities of polling booths will be done by women in the Sangwari booths that will be established in both rural and urban areas.

She said Sangwari polling stations were selected in the constituencies where the number of women voters was high and there was less turnout during the last Assembly election. Besides Sangwari, 450 model polling booths with five in each constituency and 90 booths (one in each constituency) for differently abled voters will also be set up in the state.

In the local dialect, ‘Sangwari” means friend. The 90 assembly constituencies in the state will go to the polls in two phases on November 7 and 17.

The number of polling booths in Chhattisgarh has been increased to 24,109. In the 2018 Assembly elections, 23,677 polling booths were set up across the state. Compared to previous elections, the number of people exercising their franchise in the ensuing elections has increased by 9.5 per cent. The state has 20,360,240 voters, out of which 10,239,410 are women.

In the first phase, 20 assembly constituencies (number 71 to 90) will go to the polls on November 7 and the polling will be conducted in 5,303 booths. Most of the booths fall under the sensitive and hypersensitive category, as it comes under the Maoist-infested districts.