Just over a quarter of Bihar's first-time voters have a birth certificate

Election Commission exercise has people scrambling for papers that are arduous to obtain

Millions of people in Bihar are scrambling to furnish any of the 11 documents the Election Commission (EC) has sought to update and cleanse electoral rolls before the state votes later this year.

 

The EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is meant to fix electoral roll problems such as the inclusion of foreign illegal immigrants, frequent migration, and underreporting of deaths. But Opposition parties and civil society organisations say SIR’s timing and scope could disenfranchise large numbers of poor, rural, and marginalised voters.

 

The documents accepted for SIR include birth certificates, passports (issued before July 1, 1987), government-issued service identity cards, matriculation certificates, caste certificates, and forest rights claims. Aadhaar, ration, and voter identity cards will not be accepted, triggering criticism that the EC's criteria are narrow and out of sync with the lived realities of people. 

 

Data from 2022-23 — the latest available — shows that 81.4 per cent of children under five in Bihar had their births registered: the national average is 89.3 per cent. Tamil Nadu (99 per cent), Kerala (98.7 per cent), and Gujarat (99.4 per cent) had near-universal birth registration. Jharkhand, Bihar’s neighbour, had a birth registration of 78.9 per cent and Uttar Pradesh (UP) of 75.9 per cent. Registrations shape how many people in a state will be able to produce official birth certificates to prove their age, identity or residency.  

Just 3.7 per cent of births in Bihar were registered with the government in 2000, according to data from the national Civil Registration System. The number rose to 26.2 per cent by 2007, but was still among the lowest in India. UP improved from 37.2 per cent in 2000 to 61.6 per cent in 2007. The national average was 74.5 per cent in 2007. As people born in 2007 turn 18 (the voting age) this year, many among them — especially in Bihar and UP — may not have birth certificates they can show to be included in electoral rolls. 

 

Aadhaar, which is not accepted for SIR, is widely used nationwide.. In Bihar, 87.9 per cent of the population has Aadhaar: a figure that exceeds the state’s birth registration rate (81.4 per cent). Aadhaar coverage is 94.4 per cent nationwide, with some states reporting more than full coverage for reasons such as migrant populations and duplication. Delhi has 103.6 per cent coverage and Kerala 104.9 per cent. 

 

As many as 2,744,000 passports were issued in Bihar as of 2023 — that is just 2 per cent of its population of 104 million. Government service identity cards are rare, too, with only 1.57 per cent of the population employed in state jobs, according to the Bihar Caste Survey 2022. As much as 14.71 per cent of Bihar’s population has completed Class 10, so citing that education certificate for SIR will likely be difficult. Just 4,696 claims were filed under the Forest Rights Act and 191 were approved. Additionally, the national Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 shows that 65.58 per cent of rural households in Bihar do not own land — ruling out another possible form of documentation.

 

In sum, the EC’s voter eligibility norms in Bihar could disproportionately affect the vulnerable due to struggling documentation systems.