Kolkata: As Bengal prepares for its upcoming assembly elections, a quiet but crucial mission is unfolding at the Regional Braille Press in Narendrapur. Run by the Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys’ Academy, the press is working double shifts to ensure thousands of blind voters exercise their franchise with dignity and accuracy.The press, which was established in 1967, has been tasked with printing Braille ballot papers for 183 constituencies across the state. With the first phase of polling scheduled for April 23, the facility has prioritised the constituencies that will head to the booths in the opening round.While the order for 68,000 Braille ballots was received on April 2, the actual printing could start only on April 9, once the final list of candidates was frozen. Beyond the ballots, the team has also printed 39,311 Braille voter information slips to help blind voters navigate their polling stations. Since 2011, the press has been the backbone of electoral inclusion in the region, printing Braille ballots for every Lok Sabha and assembly election. A bulk of the ballots have already been delivered and to meet the looming deadline, the press has extended its usual 6 pm closing time to 10 pm.Under the supervision of Swami Mahananda, principal of the Blind Boys’ Academy, 18 employees are working round the clock for the high-stakes job. The team includes two blind proof-readers who play a crucial role in ensuring the tactile text is error-free. The press, which normally prints textbooks for the Bengal and various state boards across Northeast India, has put into use four high-end printing machines imported from Norway, powered by specialized Duxbury software.“Given the absolute need to maintain 100% accuracy, the time constraint is our major challenge,” said Arup Chatterjee, the manager of the press. To eliminate any margin of error, every ballot is checked twice. Furthermore, the Visibility Commissioner has deployed a 20-member team — 10 of them blind — to authenticate the ballots before they are sent to the field.
