Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls should be cancelled, says economist Jean Dreze 

People’s movements and organisations in Bihar on Monday (July 21, 2025) organised a day-long public hearing on the ongoing SIR (Special Intensive Revision) exercise in the State. At the end of the hearing, the panel opined that the SIR should be not be modified but cancelled.

Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), Samar Charitable Trust, Swaraj Abhiyan and Kosi Navnirman Manch jointly organised the Jan Sunwai at the premises of Bihar Industries Association (BIA), Patna.

The panel comprised Anjana Prakash (former judge, Patna High Court), Wajahat Habibullah (former Chief Information Commissioner), economist Jean Drèze, professor Nandini Sundar (Sociologist, Delhi School of Economics), Dr. D. M. Diwakar (former Director, A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna) and Bhanwar Meghwanshi (founder, Forward Press.

People from 14 districts participated in the programme, and they shared their experiences along with problems with the panel. May voters who were not literate had to pay someone around ₹100 to fill up per form.

Kanchan Devi of Katihar district said that she has to pay Rs 100 to get her form filled. Rukma Devi from the same district had similar complaint.

Ram Chandra Prasad, a resident of Nalanda district, said that he will challenge the process in the court of law because he did not get the acknowledgement receipt after submitting the form to Booth Level officer (BLO).

Phool Kumari Devi, a labourer from Katihar district, said that BLO asked her to get a photocopy of Aadhar and Voter card which she had lot of trouble.

“I travelled 4 km to get the passport photo. I had no money; I sold the rice I had got from ration. I did not work for two days to gather all the documents. I had no rice and went hungry for two days,” Ms. Devi said.

In multiple instances, voters discovered that their forms had already been submitted by the BLO. Even their signatures on the forms were not taken.

A resident of Patna, Nirmal Kumar, alleged that his close ones received threats from the district administration when they raised the voice that their forms were already filled and submitted online.

Many shared their experience that enumeration forms were distributed not by BLOs, but by Ward Parshad, Anganwadi Workers and Kuda Wala. So, many voters received no instructions on how to fill out the form. In many households, a few members got the form and others did not.

People from the Kosi region said that their document have been washed away due multiple floods in their region.

After listening to the participants, Mr. Dreze said that the purpose of the SIR is not clear even after reading the 20-page notification of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

“The purpose is not clear, but the result is clear, in which people would not be able to exercise their franchise. As per the survey of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, 37% people do not have the documents required by the Commission. You all can understand which community, class and supporters of the political parties would be removed from the voter list,” Mr. Dreze said.

He further said that SIR is not practical and impossible so it should not be modified but cancelled.

“The SIR should not be modified but cancelled. There have been multiple violations of the ECI’s processes while completing targets under unreasonable pressure. This will worsen the quality of the voters’ list and defeat the stated purpose of the ECI,” Mr. Dreze said.

Ms. Prakash said that the documents that the ECI is asking are impossible to submit for many rural Biharis. 

Mr. Habibullah emphasised that the work of ECI is to encourage the people to vote and create a situation that can ease the voters but through SIR, it seems that the poll body is creating problem for the voters and making their path difficult.

On the other hand, Mr. Meghwansi said that the SIR process is a threat to the Preamble of the Constitution and political equality.

Professor Diwakar pointed out that today the democracy is neither of the people, nor for the people, nor by the people and everyone have to make efforts to get it back.

Expressing apprehension, Ms. Sunder said that the SIR is very dangerous for democracy, and she hoped that the people’s voice would be heard.