The Commission has ordered the SSR in 17 states with reference to January 1, 2027, including Assam and the five poll-bound states. Final rolls are scheduled for publication in first week of January, just ahead of National Voters’ Day, which has come to symbolise voter participation in democracy. The announcement that remaining states will undergo the SSR once they fully close SIR process provides assurance that this annual revision under Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act will have a normal run, albeit with varied scheduling. The SSR involves updating the electoral roll by adding new voters and deleting those who cease to exist; no ab-initio construction of a draft roll, no enumeration and no demand for eligibility document. However, questions remain about the SSR skip last year.
Constitutionally Ingrained
Constitutional debates had centred around the value of vesting voting rights in ordinary adult citizens irrespective of their social and economic attributes, leading to universal adult suffrage getting enshrined in 1949. The foundational idea was to add and include; deletion or exclusion was not a consideration. This was the ground romance of justfound independence and the flavour of a newly adopted democratic path. The focus was on bonding the system with citizens, not on weeding anyone out. Article 326 states that elections “shall be on the basis of adult suffrage” and underlines that every person “shall be entitled to be registered as a voter”. That one of the avowed aims of SIR is to search out ineligible persons who have trespassed into electoral roll would suggest a reverse move, however justified and necessary it might be.
Also Read: NRC logjam delays SIR in Assam, no clarity on timeline
Cause for Divorce
The SIR way of roll management, despite its legal correctness, would appear to be a harsh engagement replacing the warmth between the electoral system and citizens that had endured for over seven decades. This could be the heaviest cost of SIR. Pursued with grit by election managers, SIR is complete in 20 states and should conclude in another 12 by the end of the year. However, the trauma of pending petitions before tribunals in West Bengal post-SIR has not healed; the apex court is still occupied with many threads of the SIR knot; and shadows remain of street protesters demanding accountability from the ECI.Dilution, Accommodation
SSR culminates a spate of reconciliatory responses to the outcry over SIR. Exclusions arising out of mapping norms and logical discrepancies have been addressed through a combination of relaxed procedures, extended timelines and facilitation measures. BLOs are to visit homes and collect documents from those notified, saving them an appearance before electoral registration officials. Special camps have been ordered for the poor, homeless, labourers and those in night shelters. Election officials have been directed to proactively consider those “left out during SIR or thereafter” for inclusion, alongside adding young and first-time voters. The ECI has dispensed with the requirement of the controversial declaration attached to Form 6.
Also Read: BJP plans nationwide push to counter campaign against SIR
Universal Enrolment
Issues regarding absent, dead and duplicate entries have largely been addressed during SIR. This SSR should be a healthy mobilisation of young, new and left-out voters in line with the ECI’s slogan “no voter to be left behind” or even the older catchphrase -“greater participation for a stronger democracy”. ECI has asked its machinery to focus on enrolment of all ‘un-enrolled eligible citizens’, all ‘prospective electors’ with reference to January 1 next year and those qualifying in following April, July and October. SSR will rigorously account for different gaps in registration to make sure that underrepresented and vulnerable groups, including transgender people, the sick, the poor and persons with disabilities, are duly enrolled.
SVEEP of Inclusion
This thinking prompted the inception of ECI’s Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme, a decade and a half ago. The campaign marked a grand reinforcement of the thoughts of constitution framers to broaden franchise. District election officers passionately pursued inclusion of identified segments, who lagged: women, youth, urban residents and people in difficult conditions. SVEEP contributed to a healthier electorate-population ratio and a sustained enhancement in voter turnout, remarkably of women.
Make Inclusion norm again
The electoral participation philosophy is simple: all those eligible must register, and all those registered should vote. An ineligible person on the electoral roll does affect the quality of democracy, but an eligible person out of the roll is a blow to democracy. Inclusion is the original premise of Indian elections, and a return to it, under whatever pretext – call it a roll-back, a change of heart or atonement – makes ground for optimism. One hopes the SSR spirit does not abate, even if trust takes its own time to recover.
(The author is former DG, ECI)
