New Delhi: A jury report on the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has found that it is being “hastily and haphazardly conducted”, without carefully following the due provisions of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.At a ‘National Convention on Defending Universal Adult Franchise’, convened by Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), that took place at the Constitution Club, New Delhi, on December 20, the jury members heard persons from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Uttar Pradesh on how the SIR conducted by the Election Commission of India through the booth level officers (BLOs), was impacting them. The SIR has already stirred much controversy due to the reports of BLO suicides, teachers protesting coercion, and district officials brushing off any criticism. In the middle of this, it is ordinary citizens who have been left he most anxious about deletions, mismatches and sudden demands for documents.Also read: When the Electorate Itself Is Edited: The Constitutional Crisis of Mass DisenfranchisementThe jury, through testimonies, found that the heavy reliance on documentary proof and linkage to the 2003 electoral rolls placed “an unreasonable burden on ordinary citizens, particularly migrants, the poor and those without stable housing.”Moreover, a large number of people from marginalised sections have been excluded from the revised electoral rolls due to a number of discriminatory reasons such as their absence during the SIR visit, their religion, identity, living conditions, age and even gender.Migrants left outFrom the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, in particular, a large number of migrant agricultural labourers who were absent from their villages because of employment in bordering states, have been allegedly excluded from the electoral rolls, despite being registered voters of their constituencies as under Section 19 of the Representation of People Act, 1950.In Chhattisgarh, a large number of people who have been displaced on account of the activities of Salwa Judum – a now-banned vigilante militia – in the Bastar region and have left their place of residence after seeking employment in other states, have not received the enumeration forms and were likely left out of the draft electoral rolls, the report stated. Nearly 644 villages were destroyed and three lakh people were displaced during the militia’s active presence in the southern Bastar region. Many homes were burnt, and with it, people lost their documents.According to Manish Kunjam, a former MLA for Konta in Bastar, the BLOs seldom visit these areas, and the voters’ lists have been inaccurate for the last 25 years. The displaced people have largely migrated to Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.It is feared, he said, that around 1.25-1.5 lakh voters will be removed from the draft electoral rolls in the region.Religion or identityIn states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, there has been interference in the process of SIR, preventing the registration of voters from the Muslim community, on the ground that they were “illegal residents” because their “bastis had been demolished”. In Ahmedabad’s Akbar Nagar, a settlement of Muslims (which had been rebuilt after destruction in the 2002 riots), was demolished 11 months ago. Subsequently, the high court ordered rehabilitation of the people. However, during the SIR, the report stated, many of their names were not accepted because their basti had been “officially” demolished and so, these people are “living in the area illegally”.Apart from Muslim voters, there has also allegedly been exclusion of tribals in some forest areas, such as the Mudumalai forest of Tamil Nadu, as they have been displaced from their original place of residence because of a government project.In Umaria village, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, about 150 voters of a nomadic tribe, who identified as belonging to the ghumakkad jati (literally meaning wanderer tribe), claim to have been labelled as “Rohingya” or “Bangladeshi” and are facing the threat of their names being deleted from the electoral rolls under the SIR process, even though they possess documentary evidence to show that their fathers and forefathers have been included in the electoral rolls since 1984. Also read: In West Bengal, SIR Hearing Notices Surge in Muslim-Majority DistrictsAccording to the report, many of them have voted regularly since 2008 but have not found their name on the voter list. However, the report notes that even in the 2002 list, only one person from the community has their name. The tribe has a long history of displacement and migration.Slum dwellersA large number of persons in slums in metropolitan areas, particularly in Tamil Nadu, have also been excluded from the SIR process and as a result, their names were missing from the draft electoral rolls, the report states.Anya Rajgarhia, in an article for The Wire, wrote about a study highlighting how citizenship in our cities is substantively uneven in practice, and how voter registration is also differentiated by class. In three cities – Mumbai, Jalandhar and Hyderabad – the study found, a large number of the population attempted to register to vote but were unable. Less than 50% of those in informal housing are registered to vote and are significantly more likely to have problems with registering. This is compared to 74% of those in upper-class housing who could be registered to vote.Listed dead but aliveThe jury report also finds that some elderly people have had their names deleted from the final electoral roll in Bihar, and listed as dead, even though they are still living. Many of them, as a consequence, are facing other problems such as not being paid their old-age pension.The Wire also reported on a case in August 2025 where a driver in Bihar’s Ara, who said he had filled the enumeration form, found his name was struck off and declared dead. Like him, at least four others in Ara had been declared dead but they are alive.Also read: How India’s Electoral Roll Revision Exercise Continues to Undermine DemocracySimilar testimonials also came from Gujarat. In Ahmedabad, the sitting BJP MLA of Bapu Nagar, terming a group of Muslim residents “illegal”, said their forms should be rejected. In the draft electoral rolls on December 19, 1,206 persons were excluded and listed as “dead”.Women and transgender people left outAcross the states, there has also been a sharp and unexpected drop in women voters, the report states. This disproportionate deletion, the report notes, is “at least partly due to the fact that the ECI does not accept parents-in-law as ‘relatives’ and women who have left their natal villages after marriage cannot easily produce acceptable and verifiable ‘relatives’.”Moreover, many transgender persons who are bonafide citizens and entitled to vote under Article 326 of the constitution, appear to have been left out from the SIR process because they are no longer residing with their respective families who have disowned them.A cascading effect The report states that the deletion of any person’s name, due to any reason, automatically adds that person’s children to the names of deleted voters as they cannot establish parents’ details in the voter list, resulting in a cascading effect.These deletions have also been apparent in cases where there are mistakes with regard to EPIC numbers not matching names – which is leading to deletion of voters’ names. The convention also pointed out how the BLOs have been under great pressure in many states and some have taken recourse to the extreme step of suicide. The Wire has also reported on this and the criticism that the election commission has faced due to the cases. The poll body has not acknowledged the toll that the process has taken on BLOs. SIR is also causing considerable inconvenience to the public, particularly by making cumbersome demands for documents as well as traceable roots in the 2002 voter lists. Lastly, the report also notes that the SIR is effectively linking voter lists with Aadhaar without due safeguards. It states, “Aside from the possibility of harassment or surveillance issues in the future, this casual linkage enables the government to harvest extensive data on individual voters across the country. It is not difficult to imagine how this information could be misused.”If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation has a list of telephone numbers they can call to speak in confidence. Icall, a counselling service run by TISS, has maintained a crowdsourced list of therapists across the country. You could also take them to the nearest hospital.