Lactating Mothers at Polling Booths Face Problems

Visakhapatnam: From around 7 am, many elderly people and women formed queues outside the polling booths here to cast their votes for the assembly and LS polls on Monday. However, the EVMs did not work initially, causing a slow start to the polling process.

The elderly were given priority in casting their votes. Lactating mothers also came to the polling booths with their infants and requested the police to allow them to vote along with the elderly. However, the police rejected the plea and explained to them that, as per election rules, only the elderly people and the disabled are given priority.

Hence, several mothers who brought their small children along with them returned home without casting their votes.

During a field report, a journalist from Deccan Chronicle encountered a lactating mother who, in the midst of her voting ordeal, had to make a phone call home to check on her one-month-old baby. Another mother told Deccan Chronicle, "We thought we could vote early in the morning and go home. But we could not vote. After finishing household work, we need to feed our children and will later return to vote."

A lactating mother arrived at the polling booth at around 8 am but had to return home without voting. She came back after a while and cast her vote. When asked about her determination to vote, she said she needed the welfare benefits for more years. Hence, she said, it was important to cast her vote.

Many women waiting in the voting queues expressed their view that lactating mothers should also be given priority in voting.

In many polling booths, drinking water facilities were inadequate. In one booth where 9,000 people were expected to vote, the benches for the elderly men and women were also insufficient.