Legislative Assembly Constituency - Idukki District, Kerala
When I arrived in Kerala on 20th of April, in connection with performing my election duty as an observer, I found myself in the picturesquely beautiful hill district of Idukki, at the Peermade Assembly constituency. To my delight, on the very day of my arrival, the Peermade '86 Assembly Constituency had put, yet another feather, in the cap of the State of Kerala. It had become the first constituency in the country to issue 100% photo ID cards to the electorate. To achieve this feat the District Collector of Idukki, Dr. Rajan Khobragade IAS and his Chief Assistant, Mr. Arumughan, Tahsildar of Peermade had acted in a most dedicated and creative manner, which I have recorded in my report.
According to Dr. Rajan Khobragade, he took it up as a challenge. Every time Idukki was described as a backward district he wanted to prove that Idukki was not backward and could excel in electoral reforms and lead the country. It was a delightful experience to see that he has achieved it. I was reminded of a similar type of intense experience I had when years ago I met the Collector of Kottayyam District, who led country in making Kottayyam the first fully literate district in India. Dr. Rajan Khobragade has the same enthusiasm and idealism oozing out of him.
Peermade constituency, one of the most beautiful parts of Kerala, God's own country, comprises such exquisite natural spots like Tekaddi, Periyar sanctuary, Peermade, Kumli, Ayyappa Koil, etc. The constituency has a total electorate of 1,45,023 people and has in all 171 polling stations. The counting centre is located at Peermade at Mariya Giri English Medium High School, run by the Catholic Church. What makes the task of issuing photo ID cards most challenging is that the area is totally hilly and the 1,45,023 voters are spread over hundreds of miles of hills and forest.
How it was done
In the first phase photographs were taken with the help of Keltron at 51 centres after giving due publicity through mikes, banners, notices, posters, cinema slides and the media. On this occasion 97,341 ID cards were issued. After this exercise the database in the computer showed that 47,687 voters were yet to be given ID cards. Special revision of the electoral rolls was taken up again and the people left out were requested to apply. Whenever a fresh person came to get an application form he/she was asked to furnish information about anyone else known to him/her who might have died or migrated. In this way 5304 new applicants were included and 300 dead and migrated removed after verification by the village officer.
As a next step a meeting of all political parties was called and they were also asked to give a list of dead and migrated persons within their knowledge. In this way another 9191 persons were included and 2000 named as dead or migrated were obtained from the political parties and deleted after verification.
After this exercise the database showed that there were 17,000 voters who had still not got the photo identity. At this point individual notices were issued to each and every person mentioned in the electoral list to come and get the photo ID made. This brought another 2700 persons to the centres for getting their cards issued.
The door-to-door notices were issued a second time to the remaining 15,300 persons. Out of this 10,000 notices were returned from persons not available, dead and migrated. However, 1700 persons turned up for getting the ID cards in response to these notices. Again it was found that 5766 persons were left out. Once again the door-to-door notices were issued to them and 300 persons out of those came to get the photo ID cards. 4000 were found dead and gone and were deleted from the list after giving publicity to the fact. At the end of the day there were still 421 voters left.
At this stage the District administration came up with a new idea. Six staff members from the Taluk office, namely, Subair, Biju, Anil Kumar, Manoj Kumar, KS Siju and Mathew formed into three teams. Each team was given a digital camera. The teams went from house to house and from hill to hill and personally photographed all the remaining persons who had not been able to come to the centres for photography due to old age, sickness or due to any other reason. The team of village officers and field staff worked non-stop to reach each and every voter. This work was personally monitored on a day to day basis by the District Collector and supervised by Arumughan, the Tahsildar, Sri CN Pankajakshan, the Deputy Tahsildar, Sri Balan Nair and Sri Vijay Kumar.
In the process the teams faced several problems. For example, in Peruvatham village about ten Muslim women refused to get photographed as their husbands were not at home or because they were observing pardha. This had to be sorted out with the help of their relatives and elders. Some people even demanded money for having their photograph taken. This was tided over by giving them some tea, snacks, etc.
Eventually, Sri Arumughan was able to report on 20th of April 2001, the last day fixed by the Election Commission, to the District Collector Dr. Rajan Khobragade, that each person in the constituency had been issued a photo ID and thus Peermade became the first constituency in the country to achieve this electoral reform. There are many lessons to be learnt by administration throughout the country from the Peermade experience. This strategy can be used in the rest of the country also to ensure every one's free and fair democratic participation in the exercise of their franchise.
