FPJ Analysis: Poor Face Exit From Ballot Box

One of the most empowering provisions of the Indian Constitution is universal adult suffrage. It grants every adult citizen the right to vote, regardless of income, caste, religion, gender or education. This was a revolutionary departure from colonial rule, where only taxpayers or landowners were enfranchised. The poor, long excluded from power, embraced the right to vote with unmatched enthusiasm in independent India’s first general election in 1952—and every election since. For them, the ballot was not just a paper—it was dignity, voice, and power. This hard-won right is now under threat in Bihar, where a so-called “special intensive revision” of the electoral rolls is underway. If allowed to proceed as planned, it could effectively disenfranchise millions of the state’s poorest and most marginalised citizens.

The new revision exercise, which will conclude within a month, introduces an arbitrary cut-off. According to the Election Commission, only those whose names appeared on the 2003 rolls—approximately 4.96 crore voters—can remain on the new rolls without submitting fresh documents. All others must produce one of 11 approved identity proofs to retain or secure their right to vote. Over the past two decades, an estimated 1.8 crore voters from the 2003 list may have died or migrated. That means about 4.7 crore out of 7.96 crore current voters will have to produce documentation—within a tight deadline—to avoid being struck off the rolls. Here lies the problem: the required documents are often unavailable to those most vulnerable. A birth certificate, for instance, must have been issued 18 years ago. Bihar still suffers from poor birth registration, especially in rural areas where home births are common. A matriculation certificate is another option—but Bihar has among the highest school dropout rates in the country.

While Aadhaar cards and ration cards are widely held—largely because they are required to access essential services—neither is considered valid proof of voter eligibility under the current rules. Meanwhile, documents like passports, driving licences, or government service IDs are beyond the reach of most poor people, including migrants who travel to far-off states like Kerala in search of a livelihood. In many cases, these workers have no fixed address and little time or means to navigate bureaucratic hurdles. The result? Millions may find themselves excluded from the voters’ list, not for lack of citizenship, but for lack of paperwork. This abrupt and poorly justified revision exercise reverses decades of work by the Election Commission to expand voter inclusion. It gives the impression that the aim is no longer to register every eligible voter but to weed out the inconvenient ones—the poor, the migrant, and the marginalised. Needless to say, a democracy is only as strong as its weakest voter. Bihar’s revision plan, to be replicated everywhere, risks silencing their voice.

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