They walk 5km to get their fingers inked

Shivana Tanda is a hamlet on a hillock. Most residents of this Lambani settlement in Koppal district, north Karnataka, are agricultural labourers. Infrastructure is dismal in the village , and there is hardly any road connectivity.
But state election officials, during their voter awareness campaign , cite Tanda as a model hamlet. The reason: It records 100% polling during elections even though voters have to trudge at least 5km to reach the polling station.
B Kallesh, committee member (Koppal), Systematic Voter's Education Electoral Participation (SVEEP), said all the 60 voters of Tanda exercised their franchise during the last elections. “The number of voters has gone up to 68 this time, and residents are confident that all will vote,” he told TOI.
Barring electoral participation, Tanda is anything but a model settlement . Literacy levels are low as children drop out rather than walk several kilometres to attend primary school.
Villagers are unhappy as accredited social health activists (ASHAs) don't visit them frequently and women end up facing complications during pregnancy. So with problems aplenty, what drives villagers to the booth?
Villager Lakshman Naik reasoned that with the hamlet situated on a hillock, it is tough for the government to provide facilities . “There are around 20 families in the village and we walk together to the polling station. We don’t want to waste our rights. The only thing that drives us is the hope that at least one government will do something to improve our lives,” he added.
This time, Naik and his friends have urged candidates to make sure Tanda gets an anganwadi so that kids needn’t walk for long .
The Election Commission may chip in to help these villagers, at least on the P-Day . “We have sought a bus service to Tanda so that villagers needn’t walk all the way to cast their vote this time,” said Kallesh.