Ongoing SIR Enumeration Process: Designed to Exclude, Says PUCL

The national unit of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties has recently released a report on the multi-state SIR process being undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI). This report, that can be accessed here, has reportedly been put together after seeking inputs from activists in the respective states.

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the country, says PUCL,  is an exercise that is leading to the disenfranchisement of lakhs of voters. Notably, the SIR in Bihar led to the deletion of almost 65 lakh voters. While lakhs of eligible voters, mostly women, migrant workers, Muslims and Dalits have, according to investigative reports by independent media, been “robbed of their right to vote in Bihar,” now, across several other states, people from across the country have expressed angst and fears of being deleted from electoral rolls.

While the constitutionality of the SIR is a matter pending in the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has hurriedly ordered for its implementation in nine states and three union territories: Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Assembly elections are scheduled for six of these states in 2026. The enlisted Guidelines by the ECI introduced new procedures, which were contrary to the gazetted Rules for Registration of Electors, and set new thresholds for proof of citizenship before being enrolled as voters.

Before the release of the PUCL report too, civil servants and citizens had demanded a “social audit of the ongoing process.”

Outlining the well- known process, the first phase of the SIR, ie, the enumeration phase began on 4th November, 2025 and is scheduled to be completed on December 4, 2025. In the enumeration phase, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are supposed to visit every household and provide them with a pre-filled enumeration forms containing the name, Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC), also known as Voter ID, address, details of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies and their photos. Voters then have to fill some details in this form, which will be collected by BLOs, who will give an acknowledgement receipt. The most important part of the enumeration phase is that voters are required to establish a link with the last SIR (2002).

Sabrangindia was among the first to do a detailed comparative analysis of the processes that the ECI has launched. Our reports may be read here, and here. Since then we have also been collating and publishing reports on the acute distress caused by the ongoing process all over the country. These reports may be read here and here.While initially it appeared that West Bengal was worst hit by this inordinate administrative pressure causing distress, across states including Tamil Nadu and Kerala –both opposition ruled—a trail of despair can be seen.

This first phase of submission of documents has been given only one month to be completed, which has imposed a great deal of pressure on BLOs. This has pushed several BLOs into severe health crises, and even forced some to take their own lives. Rinku Tarafdar (aged 52) and Shantimoni Ekka (aged 48) from West Bengal, Mukesh Kumar Jangid (aged 45) from Rajasthan, Arvind Mulji Vadher (aged 40) from Gujarat, Mukesh Chand Jangid (aged 45) and Aneesh George (aged 44) from Kerala are the names of the BLOs who committed suicide. The bereaved families have said to news agencies that it was due to the immense pressure they were facing in implementing the SIR. Several BLOs across the country have been admitted to hospitals due to sudden ill health, heart attacks, suicide attempts and cerebral attacks, which families have attributed to the tight deadlines and extended working hours to collect and upload enumeration forms. An NDTV report (November 25) said that nine BLOs have died in total, by suicide and otherwise, while Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP, claimed on November 24, that 16 BLOs have lost their lives. PUCL is appalled at the apathy of the Union government and the Election Commission of India towards the loss of so many lives, and the working conditions of the BLOs, despite several protests, resignations and letters communicating their exhaustion and the excessive stress they are under.

Ordinary people have also expressed their distress and frustrations with the process of SIR, fearing that they will be deleted from the electoral rolls. Jahir Mal (aged 30), Shyamal Kumar Saha (aged 70), Tarak Saha (aged 52), Bimal Santra (aged 51), Kshitish Majumder (aged 95), Mahul Sheikh (aged 45) and Pradip Kar (aged 57) are the names of people in West Bengal who were forced to take their own lives over fears of being deleted from electoral rolls.

It is following these widely reported instances in independent media and social media that PUCL reached out to activists and organisations in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh to collate the experiences of the ongoing implementation of SIR, and to document the challenges being faced by people in filling these enumeration forms.

Here is what the PUCL report documents:

1. Chhattisgarh:

At the end of October 2025, PUCL-Chhattisgarh put out a call, inviting everyone to form a new forum, solely for the purpose of addressing SIR-related issues. Consequently, the “SIR Sachetan Matadhikar Bachao Manch (SSMBM)” was formed in Chhattisgarh. In English, the name translates to ‘Forum to Raise Awareness on SIR and Protect the Right to Vote’. Apart from meetings to train volunteers and spread awareness, the Forum also met with the CEO-Chhattisgarh to outline the problems people are facing.

One of the issues in Chhattisgarh is that BLOs are required to visit each voter twice – to distribute the pre-filled enumeration forms, and then to collect them. This phase has been given only 30 days, but on ground, it is being done in a very slow manner. The Forum has also pointed out that given the length and breadth of the state of Chhattisgarh, and the lack of road connectivity with many remote villages in tribal districts, the SIR has been planned in an impractical timeline. However, the Forum has also acknowledged the tremendous burden being unnecessarily put on the BLOs, and have been consistently seeking an extension of time required to complete the SIR exercise.

The Forum pointed out that frequent realignment of polling booths since 2003 makes it very difficult for people to find their names in the correct constituency or polling booth. Further, it is extremely difficult for voters to trace their names and those of their relatives in the 2003 SIR voter list.

The Forum also pointed out that there is inadequate training and a lack of clear instructions to BLOs. Despite the Supreme Court clarifying that Aadhar can be accepted in this phase to verify the identity of the voter, most BLOs in Chhattisgarh have instructions not to accept it as one of the documents establishing validity of the voter. While the Guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India specifically state that no documents are required for the initial phase of filing Enumeration Forms, many BLOs all over the state are asking people for various documents at this stage itself, such as documents showing ownership of property. Not only is this causing a lot of confusion.  It is also discriminatory against those poor and landless people, who may not have such documents.

The Forum pointed out that many BLOs are school teachers, who have been pulled out of their schools for this exercise. This is having a deleterious effect on the school education of children. In Bastar Division, which has one of the highest rates of illiteracy and poor school performance, a total of 3,128 teachers have been employed in the SIR process, leaving many students in the lurch.

Additionally, the SIR exercise is being carried out during the peak of harvest season, where a large population of the state is engaged in the harvest of the paddy crop, which is highly time sensitive. This will be followed by the post-harvest activities of drying, threshing, milling and preparing the crop for sale, which is also bound to the schedule of the state for purchasing the paddy crop. This is the busiest time of the year for farmers, who form the majority of the population of the state. It is inconceivable why this crucial exercise is kept at this time, when most people are hard-pressed to make time for arranging their documents to complete this process.

The Forum has also written to the CEO fearing that a large number of valid voters, including women, will be unable to procure their documents from the limited set of 13 documents indicated in the enumeration form, leading to many unwarranted deletions

Another issue raised by the Forum was regarding the difficulties that people were having in submitting two colour photographs, as required. Many voters are in remote tribal villages, with no photo studios, or any other photo printing facilities. They are having to forgo a day’s wages to go to the nearest town in order to get photographs. In response, the CEO issued an order to all Collectors that day itself, affirming that photos are not mandatory, and if some voter wishes to update his/her photo, the BLO can use the BLO App in his/ her smartphone to directly capture the voter’s photo. This came as a big relief to the voters.

The delegates also showed the CEO some examples of enumeration forms which had wrongly been filled out by the concerned BLO. Taking immediate action on it, the CEO ordered that all forms of the concerned BLO and supervisor to be re-done, re-verified and re-submitted.

2. Gujarat:

Though the SIR was formally announced on October 28 and was scheduled to begin on November 4, enumeration forms were ready in many districts only by the November 10. BLOs therefore do not even have the entire one month for the enumeration phase. This time limit imposed by the ECI is one of the main roots of most of the issues.

Also, there was little to no efforts by the CEO-Gujarat, in ensuring awareness about the SIR process. Wherever the DEO and ERO were proactive, they collaborated with civil society organisations to get help in the enumeration phase.

Various civil society organisations have organized camps and written representations documenting the difficulties faced by people in filling the enumeration forms. In rural areas, BLOs took the support of many local organisations for the distribution of enumeration forms.

Though the Guidelines say that voters must be given duplicate copies of the filled forms, in rural areas and many towns, only a single copy of the form is being given to the voters. Therefore, a large number of people today do not have any copy of their filled SIR form.

One of the biggest issues is that the 2002 list of voters has not been made available in a searchable format. They are shared as PDFs in zip folders with unnamed files. It is therefore a mammoth task for people to go through hundreds of folders to locate their names. Due to a technical ‘font’ issue, the second link that was given by the CEO was not even accessible. People who had voted in 2002 could not trace their names in the list. In cities and towns, BLOs did not even have the 2002 list in hand. In metropolitan cities like Ahmedabad and Surat, after the exercise of delimitation, wards and booths have changed, leading to frustration among people about non-searchable lists of 2002. Also, the provision to fill enumeration forms online did not work because people could not find their names in the 2002 list, and because there were discrepancies in spellings in their Aadhar card.

The Guidelines also state that the digitization of collected enumeration forms must be done in real time. Till November 23, only 37% of the forms were digitized. Shockingly, the CEO announced in a half page advertisement, that people can submit blank forms by signing it and attaching a copy of their Aadhar cards.

Another issue is that BLOs are facing extreme pressure from the EROs, supervisors and political party representatives. Nine of them told PUCL that they were asked to fill the form on behalf of the people who had migrated to another place long ago. They are also facing difficulty collecting the filled forms from people. They are required to work after 6 PM to upload the forms, but many BLOs are not familiar with technology and are facing internet and server issues. Women BLOs are facing several challenges, especially those who are pregnant and are forced to work for long hours, walk long distances in rural areas and climb stairs. BLOs are also facing the brunt of being answerable on issues of governance, as many people are treating them as representatives of the government.

In Gujarat alone, four BLOs have lost their lives, one of whom, committed suicide.

Overall, people are worried that their names will be deleted from the draft electoral rolls, and will have to undergo processes to re-register.

3. Goa –

The seriousness with which Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been instructed to conduct the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Goa is evident. They have been told that this is a very serious exercise and that there can be serious consequences if anything is found to be wrong. Yet, on the ground, BLOs are visibly under pressure—caught between demands to include certain names and exclude others.

In this cross-fire, exclusionary practices emerge at the very first stage of enumeration. BLOs are found asking for documents that could potentially disqualify individuals. As anticipated, in Goa, some BLOs have been asking people to show their passports, claiming they have instructions to check whether a person may hold a Portuguese passport. This creates a serious problem: many individuals may not possess any passport at all. More fundamentally, it raises the question of whether the ECI has the authority to make determinations about citizenship based on information gathered by BLOs, without due process, and without the Government addressing the long-standing demand of Goans for special status through dual citizenship, in view of their belated entry into the Indian Constitutional framework. This issue is compounded by the specific circumstances under which Goans are enabled Portuguese citizenship notwithstanding their Indian citizenship, and by recent developments in Portuguese law, where registration of birth in Portugal is assumed to confer Portuguese citizenship.

Another difficulty faced by the public is the reliance on the 2002 electoral rolls as the reference point for the SIR in Goa. With part numbers having changed, many people are struggling to locate their names and details in those rolls. BLOs, by and large, are being helpful, but individuals should be empowered to check and be satisfied independently. The official website, however, is not user-friendly.

Booth Level Agents (BLAs) are permitted to accompany BLOs to ensure that the latter are not compromised by MLAs or ruling party politicians in the area. Yet, two practical issues arise: synchronizing the timings of BLOs with BLAs, and the tight timeframes within which the exercise must be completed. Moreover, the ruling or dominant party usually has the resources to engage BLAs across all booths, while representatives of other parties often lack such capacity.

If BLOs are to resist pressure, a transparent and consistent system is required—one that demonstrates clearly that each BLO has indeed covered all households.

The seriousness of the authorities is further reflected in the indicative list of documents provided with the SIR form in Goa. At point 13, it refers to the “Electoral roll of Bihar SIR with reference to 01.07.2025.” This raises questions. Migrant workers from Bihar, who form a significant part of Goa’s labour force in garbage collection, manual work, and construction, certainly wish to register their names in the electoral rolls of their constituencies in Bihar. Yet it remains unclear whether they have been able to do so in the recent SIR, and how this is going to play out in terms of their inclusion or exclusion in the Goa SIR.

4. Madhya Pradesh:

Seasonal Migration: Families missing during enumeration

The SIR survey is being conducted during peak migration season (November to March). Thousands of Adivasi families migrate to Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states for work. Many work in conditions close to bonded labour, making communication with them nearly impossible. Because entire families are away, they are likely to be marked as “absent” or “shifted” even though they are alive and eligible. Elderly relatives who remain in the village cannot handle the complex paperwork involved in SIR.

• Women likely to be excluded due to design of the process

Women who married after 2003 do not have their own names in the 2003 voter list. Unless BLOs trace the names of their parents or grandparents, these women cannot be mapped to 2003 records and will be excluded. The problem is even more serious in southern Madhya Pradesh because many women come from Maharashtra. BLOs are unable to access Maharashtra records, especially since SIR is not being implemented there as of now. This will result in a large number of women being left out of the voter list.

• Lack of documents due to historical displacement

Adivasi families already struggle to access education, ration, social security and healthcare due to Aadhaar-linked requirements. Frequent eviction, insecure forest and land rights and displacement mean documents often get lost or are never issued. The SIR process assumes that every family has secured long-term documentation, which is not the reality in tribal areas.

• Low literacy and absence of the educated youth

Most literate youth migrate for employment, leaving elderly and women behind. Low literacy levels prevent people from verifying whether the BLO recorded their details correctly, following up on notices or checking names in the draft list. This increases the chances that incorrect deletions will go unchallenged.

• Name mismatch problems

Adivasi names often differ in different documents. Spellings vary, surnames may not exist and even fathers’ names vary within the same family. A simple search failure by the BLO results in “name not found” which leads to exclusion from the list.

• Document requirements stricter than Form-6

Form-6 allows Aadhaar, PAN, bank passbook or driving licence as identity and address proof. The SIR demands stricter rules for continuing on the voter list than for becoming a new voter. This makes it harder for existing voters to retain their names on the list than for new names to be added.

• Digital barriers

Draft rolls and forms are online. Internet connectivity and smartphones are scarce in Adivasi regions. The 2003 electoral rolls are English-language PDF scans that require exact spellings to search. People are forced to depend on cyber-cafés or political intermediaries, creating space for exploitation and bribery.

• Survey will not reach all households

In inaccessible forest belts, scattered hamlets and remote areas, BLOs are unlikely to reach 100% of the households. Anyone who is not physically located will be marked “absent”, “shifted” or “dead” regardless of whether they are entitled to vote.

• BLOs are overburdened

BLOs are Anganwadi workers, teachers and revenue staff who already have full-time duties. They do not have the time to carry out thorough house-to-house voter surveys. This leads to incomplete and rushed enumeration.

• Institutional failures worsening the situation

Enumeration forms were supplied a week late in many parts of western MP, which wasted one quarter of the total enumeration time. BLOs were not provided Form-6 or Form-8 making additions and corrections impossible. Essential public services like Anganwadi nutrition, schooling and revenue work are suffering because staff have been shifted to SIR work.

5. Rajasthan:

Rajasthan has 52,490 booths, with an average of 1000 to 1200 voters per booth. Although in the city it goes up to even 1400 voters per booth. As of October 27, 2025, the day SIR was declared for our state, the total number of electors were 5.48 crores. So this humungous exercise had to be carried out at crash course speed in 30 days, one month.

Rajasthan had begun a certain preparation a while ago and in the month of August – September, BLOs were trained on the basis of the Bihar SIR orders. Later day-long SIR refresher sessions for BLOs were organised to clarify the changes from the Bihar orders, after October 27. Some of the most important changes were listed, that no document would be required to be collected in the enumeration phase. The 2002 voter linkage was not just of one’s own, but of any parent and the term guardian was introduced. Only the entries of the 2002 linkage had to be added and that new voters could fill Form 6 along with the process of Form 4 filling. It also stated that Aadhar could be used, as a document for identity, along with 2025 Bihar SIR as the reference for the Bihari origin people who were living in Jaipur. The 13 documents were mentioned in the guidebook for BLOs.

The CEO Rajasthan also announced that they had already undertaken the mapping exercise and that 71 % voters already had legacy established. About 15 to 20 percent of the voters would have legacy in other states and that it was the duty of the BLO and BLA to help the voter access their progeny in other states. It was also emphasised that married women would have to trace their legacy to their parents and not their marital homes. And that all the state voters list of 2002 was on the ECI website and that very easily it could be accessed. Those voters who were unable to fill the form themselves could use the online option of filling Form 4. Although it was also cautioned that when there was a difference in name and spellings between the Aadhar document and the EPIC number then it was better to give a hard copy as the online form would not accept the document.

The PUCL sub-report for the state that while these outlines seemed do-able on paper when the process actually started several issues emerged that are to date, unresolved.

The first breakdown that the PUCL team experienced was of the ECI portal. It would just not open. Leave alone accessing the 2002 voters list of various states. If it did by chance open on your computer, it was very difficult to open it on the mobile. This problem continued for almost ten days to two weeks. But it is smoothened out to some extent, yet very slow, when sitting on booths and trying to open other state lists to identify the 2002 legacy.

The other set of issues were more serious. An informal network of local groups working on SIR in Rajasthan and decided to hold regular zoom meetings and resolve issues in less than 24 hours if they came. A team of 10 people was constituted who were to respond ASAP to the problems.

The PUCL volunteers also worked with the de-notified and nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes within Jaipur’s walled city, single / abandoned and runaway women/ migrant workers colony, Muslim dominated areas, we also had massive complaints from the South of Rajasthan of Adivasi women, workers of all kinds, including industrial and informal sector workers and especially with the issues of out-migrants and in-migrants who were voters in Rajasthan.

Regular representations were sent to the CEO and individual Collectors and telephonic contact maintained with other officials. Little changes were seen on the ground however.

The engagement showed how the design of this process was to exclude and not include. It was contrary to all earlier exercises. Even the booth level workers were in agreement that it was an exercise of disenfranchising the poor, the migrant, the Dalit, the transgender people, the DNT, NT & SNTs, the Adivasis, women across the board. It was not just the poor that felt disempowered but also the powerful. Conversations with several retd. IAS officers led to realising how this exercise was a criminal exercise, impossible for many of them, because of the 2002 EPIC number entry. Someone’s daughter in law was suffering, some of them were suffering as they did not remember the booth they voted from in 2002, due to different postings.

Some of the key issues that have emerged from the engagement of the last 20 days are as follows.

1. Many Women in South Rajasthan, in particular in Dungarpur and Kotra, Udaipur district, have natal homes in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, were unable to find their progeny details of 2002 as they had no idea what the booths of their parents were. They had lost contact with their natal homes and therefore were finding it difficult to establish the 2002 entries required.
2. The names of the women in these regions change after marriage and therefore it was difficult to establish that they were the same person in 2002, if they were voters in 2002 on the basis of their maiden name. This would be a case like in Bihar, where SIR ended up changing the gender ratio in the electoral roles, affecting women adversely.
3. Married women everywhere were at a losing end, leaving the booth disappointed. Despite having a voter ID of their home state, of 2002, they were not able to access it to give it to the BLO. Most BLOs made it clear that unless they get details from E-mitra of 2002, they will not waste any time.
4. Runaway women, sex workers, abandoned women, orphans were at a complete loss. How do they establish their legacy? Even if over the years they had established themselves with cards, like a voter ID, Aadhar, PAN card, it seemed meaningless as they had no clue of their 2002 data, many of them wept that not only would they lose out, but their children would also not be accepted in SIR, as their legacy would not be established. The state refused to accept that people live in rented accommodation and had moved on to newer housing, without knowing their booth or constituency.
5. SIR was not accessible to migrants and labourers. With the data of 46.26 % Households in Rajasthan, at least one member migrated for work, which rises to 56.6 % in Southern Rajasthan, in the districts of Banswara, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Sirohi, Udaipur who migrate to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to work. Similarly all the big cities host a lot of migrant population from outside the state. The demands were clear that migrants leave soon after Diwali and change their SIM numbers in these states and are inaccessible. They would not return within the window of SIR and would be excluded. Even if there are members left behind, they too were struggling with the 2002 progeny mapping. The lists were not machine readable and therefore mostly inaccessible, the online voter ID and Aadhar linkage due to its own attendant issues of internet and different names, seemed out of the pale. Despite urging that camps be organised, except for one district, no other district organised camps for migrants. Both the industrial workers and unorganised sector workers said that they would not care to waste their time to fill the SIR form unless their jobs were assured as employers refused to give them time off. They would require at least two days to deal with the details of form 4.
6. The DNT, NTs, SNts and Homeless faced the most peculiar issues. They had no documents to establish that they even belonged here. Most had no legacy, since their parents had no cards in 2002. If at all they did make their cards, they found it deleted. Many had Aadhar cards, and we were telling them to fill form 6, but strangely, the form had a section asking for the 2002 entries of their parents/relatives. And if you were above 40 years old, the BLOs refused to accept their form 6, claiming that it was impossible that they had no card till now. The majority of course had no card, neither election card nor an Aadhar, as getting an age declaration was the toughest. Authorities refused to accept their age affidavits, despite all formalities, secondly, many were just squatters. Despite the 2013 order for homeless people, where the BLO had to spend two nights in a Basti to assess whether the person stayed there to establish residence, the people were without any documents.
7. People living in the walled city were surprised to find that though they had never changed residence, (or even if they did, it was their parental home) they found their names deleted from the 2025 lists. And received no Form 4. They were extremely upset that they had to fill form 6 and become a new voter. We met many Hindus and Muslims who had lost their right to vote, despite having voted in 2023 state elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the majority were Muslims though.
8. One of the worst situations was of the BLOs. Most importantly, the people were not returning filled in forms. It was clear that they needed assistance, which is where PUCL volunteers stepped in. The entire paraphernalia of BLOs, Supervisor, AEROs would sit with our volunteers and interns and would collect the forms. The team states that they helped fill 300 to 400 forms in the camps that were organised. Through this process, the BLOs spoke of their stress. The husband of a BLO shared that she had a massive heart attack due to the stressful work and was admitted in the ICU. Although the election department had replaced her with two women teachers, they were nervous and did not know what to do. On the day of the heart attack more than 300 forms were to be still distributed. In the camp that was held in that area, the team managed to fill 200 forms. But 100 were to be distributed. They were all tense. Her total count was of 1400 forms, only 700 had returned.In another shocking instance, the SDM of Ramganjmandi tehsil, Kota District, sent the police to the residence of a BLO, who abducted him and took him to the SDM. He was questioned as to why he should not be removed. Another BLO added that the publishing of data about the number of forms that have been uploaded is causing an unnecessary competition between states and districts, and is leading to the BLOs facing additional pressure from their EROs. A Teachers’ Union representative shared that teachers have been made to suffer like never before.
9. Suicide and Deaths of 3 BLOs, did result in technical teams being set up to assist the BLOs, but the timeline of 30 days, is taking a major toll on the people’s health and also their relationships. Cases of Domestic violence, where women are not returning home till late, neglecting their children are galore.

With the 30 day pressure of finishing the enumeration and the overwhelming progeny mapping push, SIR is an exercise to delete and not include.

6. Tamil Nadu:

Firstly, the Tamil translation of the enumeration forms has left people in confusion, and many voters have left some portions blank, including ‘Details of Relative’. Secondly, it has been a massive challenge to locate the old voter lists and booth details of 2002 and 2005. People are unable to recollect the exact details of the booths from so many years ago, leading to incorrect entries, risking deletion of many voters.

Thirdly, BLOs have not received enough training. Tamil Nadu’s Federation of Associations of Revenue Employees went on a one day strike demanding the halting of SIR, because the BLOs have not been trained sufficiently. Fourthly, the uploading of Enumeration forms online is challenging for those who are not comfortable with technology. Even a technically sound person needs to spend at least half a day for the same.

Fifthly, despite almost reaching the end of the enumeration phase, forms are yet to reach all localities especially of Dalit, tribal and minority communities in rural areas. It may be estimated that at least 40% of the people are yet to receive their forms. Six, awareness campaigns and knowledge about the consequences of SIR are only being done in limited areas by some political parties and social organisations. There is insufficient advertising and awareness campaigns being run in the state, which may lead to a large number of unfair deletions.

7. Uttar Pradesh:

In UP, lakhs have not received the enrollment forms yet. This is extremely worrying as the 30-day phase for enumeration is almost coming to an end. Off the record, BLOs have shared that they do not know how to reach migrant workers. 30-40% of the people of the state migrate to other cities. In some villages, almost 70% of the people migrate outside. BLOs do not know how to reach voters who are not available in their homes. They have also shared off the record, that in a state like Uttar Pradesh, no BLO has the courage to complain and that the enumeration forms were provided much later than the start date (4th November). BLOs are therefore forced to complete the process in a haste.

Another issue is that residents who were on the 2002 list have shifted homes, and are not receiving the enumeration forms in their old place of residence or new. Many have reported that BLOs in their old addresses have marked them as ‘shifted out’, and BLOs in their new addresses do not have their names in their lists. For instance, a big settlement with Muslim residents was demolished, and had even approached the Supreme Court to fight for relief. They have not received their forms in their new place of residence.

A common issue faced by the people is that there are hundreds of mistakes in the spellings of their names and date of birth in their Aadhar Cards, leading to problems in verification for enumeration. Additionally, there are many people without Aadhar cards, especially disabled persons in rural areas. Many married women do not have EPIC Numbers or information about their parents, and are unable to establish their genealogy in the forms. In rural areas, we fear that there will be hundreds of mistakes in the family register being maintained by the Secretary, which will lead to several voters being marked as ‘doubtful voters’.

Another issue is that people are not being given acknowledgement receipts or the duplicate copies of the filled enumeration forms.

Finally, there is a rise of many middle-men, who are charging money to fill forms for marginalized and poor communities, who cannot do it themselves. Even BLOs are sending others to distribute and collect forms as they are unable to cope with the tight timelines.

While BLOs are picking up phones to guide or collect the forms, there is a lot of panic and confusion, especially among poor and Muslim communities, who are recalling the repression they faced during the CAA-NRC time.

(This is a report made public by the PUCL National Team:

Inputs by Shalini Gera, PUCL Chhattisgarh

Inputs by Pankti Jog, PUCL Gujarat

Inputs by Madhuri, PUCL

Inputs by S. Balamurugan, PUCL TN & Puducherry

Inputs by Albertina Almeida, NAJAR in Goa

Arundhati Dhuru, NAJAR

Inputs by Kavita Srivastava, PUCL National President and Mamta Jaitly, Vice President of PUCL Rajasthan

Courtesy: Sabrang India