Amidst the usual turmoil bubbling with the 2019 general elections around the corner, its easy to forget the rich and diverse history that has summed up to this very day. From the votes cast to the speeches given, every facet of the previous elections can be traced back in shaping our current socio-political fabric. One such forgotten gem is the story of the factory that made the ballot boxes for India’s first poll.
Back in 1952, in the Vikhroli suburb of Bombay, factory workers of Plant 1 of the Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. were relentlessly putting in long hours to manufacture what were the ballot boxes of independent India’s first polls. They had the mammoth task of producing 12.8 lakh ballot boxes in the matter of four months, and thus were going at a striking rate of 15,000 boxes a day. These olive-green boxes had undergone 50 test designs and had the production cost of Rs. 5. Finally, they were loaded onto railway wagons and sent to the 22 states holding the polls, with workers tirelessly walking back and forth to the station with the help of ‘mashaals’ or torches.
A lot has changed over the years, but to this date the efforts of the organisational work force behind each election gets taken for granted. So, this year don’t let them go to waste. Vote, make it count and be a part of history.
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