Curled up under a multicoloured sheet on a folding bed, Kela Devi’s frail body goes easily unnoticed. It doesn’t help that the half-hearted light streaming in from the windows is blocked by thick, dark green curtains. Devi turned 101 on January 31 this year. Grimacing, she says, “Ab chala bhi nahi jaata. Khaat bhi paar nahi hoti (I can’t walk anymore. I can’t even cross over to another bed).”
A resident of Haryana’s Nuh, Devi says she has voted throughout her life, but doing so this year looks difficult. She’s not even sure how “safe” a voting method the postal ballot will be.
As India votes in the Lok Sabha election, which will be held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, statistics from Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer show that the State has nearly 11,000 voters over the age of 100, including 40 over the age of 120. Of these, 10,570 belong in the 100-109 age group, of which 60% (6,568) are women, while the remaining 4,002 are men. There are 337 voters aged between 110 and 119.
