Voter verification drive in Bihar: too little time, too many hurdles

The Election Commission of India (EC!) recently issued an order for holding Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls for Bihar. This exercise will then be carried out in all the States. The order is antithetical to the tradition of this august institution. From the first election held in independent India, the ECI has played a heroic role in seeding democracy through active voter enrolment and protection of the right to vote of the disadvantaged.Though the ECI is facing a credibility crisis of late, this initiative is surprisingly radical. And unless it is substantially modified, it will disproportionately disenfranchise the poor and deprived electors irrespective of their party preference. We will leave the thorny questions of legality to the experts and just focus on the scale of the venture and its practicability within the proposed timeline.As per the directive, all individuals who have not been featured in the electoral rolls of 2003 need to prove their citizenship as per the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, and Rules. Broadly, if the 2003 electoral roll features nearly all individuals who were 18 years or older then, these individuals, now 40 years and older, get a direct entry into the proposed electoral roll. How many then have to go through the hoops?

- GNS News Agency, July 9

In 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare published a report, Population Projections for India and States 2011-36. The report estimates the current voting age population of Bihar to be 8.08 crore. About 59% of this population (4.76 crore individuals) is 40 years old and under. The ECI, from July 1 to July 31, requires this staggering number to prove citizenship.In its press note of June 28, the ECI stated that the electorate count in Bihar is 7.9 crore. As per the ECI, as “4.96 crore of the 7.9 crore already have their names in the last intensive revision of electoral rolls” in 2003, just 2.94 crore individuals will need to submit their eligibility documents. This is clearly an oversight. The electoral roll of 2003 for Bihar did have around 4.96 crore individuals. By our calculations from the reports of the Sample Registration System, around 1.1 crore of them are dead. The ECI has taken them off the rolls.