ONE OF the reasons cited by the Election Commission for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar is “frequent migration”. A long way from home, the migrants from the state working in Delhi have either not heard they need to enroll again or, if they have, are not sure they can arrange any of the 11 documents the EC is demanding for the SIR.
Ankit Kumar, 22, originally from Begusarai, where his wife and family still live, earns Rs 500-600 a day as a loader at the Sadar Bazaar wholesale market in Old Delhi. Told about the EC’s directive, Ankit is incredulous. “Maine nahin suna abhi tak… Aur main toh mobile pe roz news dekhta hun (I haven’t heard about this… And I see the news daily on my mobile phone),” he says, showing his smartphone.
Ankit, who voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, was planning to return home to vote in his first-ever Assembly elections later this year. However, “the only two IDs” he possesses, Aadhaar and voter card, are not valid as per the EC directive for the new enrolment, which asks for proof of place of birth as well.
The 11 documents the EC lists as valid include passport, birth or caste or tribe or education certificates, apart from land allotment records and ID cards issued by public sector enterprises or local government authorities. The form has to be submitted by July 25 and EC has said documents can be submitted by September 1.
“How will those who are angootha chaap (illiterate) have such documents? I never even got a birth certificate made. For everything – from free ration to treatment in hospitals – officials want an Aadhaar card. Now you are saying an Aadhaar card won’t work. How is this possible?” Ankit says.
Across labour chowks, markets and colonies with sizeable Bihari migrant populations in Delhi and neighbouring Noida, there are many in the same boat as Ankit. The 2011 Census data put Bihar at second-highest among states with residents working outside, after Uttar Pradesh, with migrants accounting for 7.2% of its population. Delhi was a top destination for migrants from Bihar.
The EC has said migrant voters can submit their forms online, with Booth Level Officers instructed to inform their families of the same. However, not many are well-versed with accessing the Net, and if they are, they run into the hurdle of documents. Those who figure in the 2003 electoral rolls only have to submit an extract of it; however, most of the migrants don’t fall in this category as they are younger than 40, and hence were not 18 at the time of the 2003 roll preparation.
At Sadar Bazaar’s Mithai Pul, Amarjeet Kumar, a 29-year-old Dalit from Bihar’s Bhagalpur district, claims he lost all his documents to theft recently. With a small, kuchcha house in a Bhagalpur village his family’s only asset, Kumar tries to send everything he earns back home. So in Delhi, he sleeps on the pavement. “A rented room costs too much… It was from the pavement a month ago that a bag with all my documents was stolen.”
Dinesh Das from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur at the Azadpur Mandi. (Express Photo)
Kumar has applied for the papers again, but the person who is helping him get his Aadhaar made has told him “it will take another week to be delivered home”, he says.
Dinesh Das, 35, from Inseram Nagar village in Muzaffarpur district, drives a cart delivering fruits to Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s largest wholesale market. The member of an Other Backward Class (OBC) community, Das says he heard of the SIR drive from a lawyer back home. Das’s mother, wife and three children live in the village, in the family’s kuchcha house.
“The lawyer told me I need a passport, birth certificate, school marksheet, or caste certificate. I have never needed a caste certificate because I never went to school or college or applied for a job under a quota. If I was educated, would I have been pulling this cart? Where will I get these documents?” Das says.
He also questions the timeline. “The lawyer told me this has to be done within a month, and that I need to come home if I want my name to remain on the voter list. At this time of the year, there is decent work for me here because this is the season for mangoes and other fruits. If I go home, I will lose my earnings.”
In North Delhi’s Old Seelampur Market, Mukesh Raj, 26, from Bihar’s Araria district, says he always goes home for two things – the Chhath Puja and elections. “Vote dena zaroori hai. Us-se aap system mein rehte ho (It’s important to vote. It’s how you mark your presence in the system).”
The news of the electoral roll revision is a shock to him too. “I will have to check with my wife,” Raj, who hails from the OBC Kushwaha community and owns less than a bigha of land, says.
The online option for enrolment is no option for people like him, he adds. “I don’t even have a proper phone. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I only use the calling feature and YouTube on my phone. I can’t read.”
At Labour Chowk in Noida’s Sector 58, Mithilesh Kumar, 30, a Dalit from Bihar’s Araria district, is having a tough morning with no odd job coming his way. He works as a mason / house painter.
Mithilesh has heard about the SIR drive, but is equally confused about what to do next. “My wife told me an adhikari (official) came home. But she couldn’t explain what had to be done. And how can I complete the form while I am here?” His wife lives in the village with their two sons and his parents.
Why the hurry, Kumar adds. “My wife said the official told her it has to be done soon. For these things, they should give people time. For everything, officials want bribes. I don’t have the money for it… Mushkil lag raha hai (It seems tough).”
However, the apprehension that his name would be cut from the electoral rolls worries him. “How will I prove then who I am and where I am from?” says Mithilesh. “Vote dena zaroori hai (It is essential to vote).”