Ranchi: The office of Jharkhand’s chief electoral officer (CEO) is preparing special instructions to ensure that vulnerable citizens are not excluded from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).The proposed guidelines will allow election officials to consider alternative documents and other forms of verification for people who do not have conventional proof of age, residence or identity to attach to their declaration forms.The framework is expected to cover transgenders, sex workers, citizens living in old age homes, orphans, destitute women residing in Sakhi Sadan and elderly people who have no documents in their names. In the case of such senior citizens, documents belonging to their adult sons or daughters may be accepted if the children are already enrolled and verified as electors during the SIR process.The initiative addresses a key gap in the revision exercise: people living in institutional care, without family support or outside conventional households often have the weakest documentary trail.Existing Election Commission guidelines for Form-6 already recognise that documentary proof may not be available in every case. They provide for field verification of homeless citizens and state that eligible sex workers should not be denied registration merely because they lack proof of residence, provided their actual place of residence is verified.“We are drafting instructions on document requirements and alternative documents for inclusion of vulnerable sections of society, including transgender persons, sex workers, senior citizens living in old-age homes, orphans, destitute women living in Sakhi Sadan and senior citizens whose children have the necessary documents,” CEO K Ravi Kumar said.The instructions will guide district election officials during verification and are intended to ensure that the absence of standard papers does not exclude otherwise eligible voters, while retaining safeguards against wrongful inclusion.“The directions are expected to be issued to district election teams after internal vetting,” Kumar said.
