Runners hired to reach remote voters during India state poll

INDIA has recruited 15 runners to ferry messages as far as 27 miles in remote mountainous areas after heavy monsoon rains cut telecommunications.

State officials said the runners would be required to jog in relays in hilly terrain to provide a communication link between Ranikor and South Tura in northeastern Meghalaya state and the closest electoral office, in the run-up to state assembly elections on Aug 23.

Neither constituency has any roads – just narrow tracks and pathways connecting them to the rest of the state. Mobile telephone connectivity, especially during the current monsoon rains, is largely non-existent.

Nearly 540 people have died across India in the monsoons that began in June and from the floods they triggered; this included around 40 fatalities in the northeastern region, including Meghalaya and the neighbouring Assam state.

In response, the Election Commission, responsible for overseeing all Indian elections, has hired local “able bodied men” with proven athletic prowess to keep it informed about the voting.

Fredrick Roy Kharkongor, the chief area electoral officer, said Ranikor assembly constituency had five polling booths, of which the furthest was 27 miles away from the nearest road.

He said several runners would be required to cover this distance, swiftly carrying messages to keep the commission informed of the activities in both constituencies. They would all be paid a modest wage, but he declined to specify the amount.

The commission had hired runners during state assembly elections in February, but officials said in the end they were not needed, as mobile telephone connectivity at the time had been “adequate”.

Both constituencies produce the best runners in the state, as their remoteness forces local people to walk and run long distances.

Message runners in India date back to 16th-century Mughal rule, when they were used to gather and disseminate intelligence, convey messages and work for merchants as part of their commercial dealings.

During British colonial rule, runners were used to transport mail – known as Dak – and they were reimbursed according to the distance they covered and the weight of the letters or parcels they carried.

Even today India is dotted with quaint, colonial-era Dak bungalows that were established in the 18th and early 19th centuries as “designated buildings”, where one runner would hand over his mailbag or package to a colleague, after covering a specified distance.

Many such runners were immortalised in local folklore, with some even portrayed as heroes in films shown in regional cinemas there.