For the 2024 Lok Sabha election, India’s Election Commission rolled out home voting for the first time in a national election — allowing citizens aged 85 and older, and people with disabilities meeting a defined threshold, to cast their ballots without leaving their homes. The move extended the vote to millions who had long faced practical barriers to reaching polling stations.
At a glance
- Home voting India: Eligible voters above 85 years of age and those with 40% or greater benchmark disability can now apply to vote from home during Lok Sabha elections.
- Voter eligibility: More than 81 lakh voters are aged 85 or above in India, and over 90 lakh registered voters hold disability status — together forming the target population for the program.
- Ballot secrecy: A dedicated team of polling officials and security personnel visits each home, and the entire process is videographed to maintain transparency and protect the secrecy of the vote.
Why this matters for democratic access
Elections are only as representative as the people who can actually vote. For elderly citizens in remote areas and people with physical disabilities, the distance to a polling station — or simply the difficulty of navigating one — has quietly excluded millions from participation in India’s democratic process for decades.
The 2024 initiative directly addresses that gap. Eligible voters apply using Form 12D within five days of the election notification, submitting it to the returning officer. Those with disabilities attach a baseline disability certificate. A polling team then schedules a visit, notifies the voter in advance, and collects the ballot at home.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, described the program as an act of care and respect toward voters who have often been overlooked by the logistics of elections. That framing matters — it positions access not as a favor but as a right.
Stories from the field
The early phases of polling produced some striking images of the program in action. In Churu, Rajasthan, eight people with disabilities from the same family voted from their home together. In the remote districts of Bastar and Sukma in Chhattisgarh, elderly voters who would otherwise have faced long and difficult travel cast their votes without leaving their communities. The same was true in Sironcha town in Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra.
These are not edge cases. They represent what happens when a system bends toward the people it is supposed to serve rather than requiring those people to bend toward the system.
Technology and transparency
The Election Commission of India paired the home voting initiative with digital notifications and full videography of the collection process. That combination addresses two concerns at once: voters are informed and prepared, and the process is documented in a way that deters tampering and builds public trust.
India has long used electronic voting machines and has invested in accessible polling infrastructure, but this marks a meaningful shift — moving from adapting polling stations to bringing the vote directly to the voter. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities affirms political participation as a fundamental right, and India’s move aligns with that standard in a concrete, operational way.
A model worth watching
With voter turnout a persistent challenge in democracies around the world, accessible voting mechanisms offer a practical path toward more representative outcomes. India’s scale makes this particularly significant — the 2024 Lok Sabha election is the largest democratic exercise in human history, with roughly 970 million eligible voters.
Several countries, including Australia and Sweden, have long offered postal or proxy voting for people who cannot attend polling stations. India’s home voting model adds a layer of in-person accountability — with officials present, ballots collected directly, and the process recorded — that may appeal to democracies concerned about verification.
One challenge worth noting: awareness and application uptake. Reaching eligible voters in remote and underserved communities to inform them about Form 12D remains a practical hurdle, and the program’s reach will depend heavily on effective outreach at the local level. Whether participation rates grow in subsequent elections will be an important measure of the program’s long-term success.
Read more
For more on this story, see: DD News — Election Commission introduces home voting for elderly and persons with disabilities
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- The Good News for Humankind archive on India
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