Impact of SIR on the migrant workers in India

Introduction:

While SIR (Special Intensive Revision) by ECI (Election Commission of India) is a process to check completeness and authenticity of the electoral rolls and is conducted from time to time. India has witnessed such SIRs 13 times¹ during 1952–56, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1983–84, 1987–89, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003 and 2004.  The latest SIR started before the Bihar elections in 2025-26 and its latest phase is covering 12 states and union territories² covering over 51 crore voters including voters in Assam (where elections were just concluded), and poll bound states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. This SIR process has created a panic among the migrant workers³ that they may lose citizenship if they are unable to vote in this election.

Conceptual and Legal Framework:

SIR is a large scale, door-to-door verification drive conducted by the ECI to ensure accuracy of the electoral rolls. According to the ECI, the primary objective of this exercise is to produce an error free voter list; one in which every eligible citizen finds their name correctly entered, and neither ineligible nor duplicate names are included.

The ECI, in exercise of its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution of India⁴, Section 21 along with other applicable provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the relevant provisions of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 vide order date October 27, 2025 has ordered Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in 12 states and UTs including the aforementioned 3 states where elections have been concluded recently or are due.  

SIR Process

In order to the understand the impact on the Indian migrant workers in the SIR, one must first understand the SIR process⁵ which is explained as follows through various stages. 

1. Distribution Phase

The ECI has generated an Enumeration Form (EF) based on the previous SIR and subsequent updates. These forms will be distributed by the BLO (Booth Level Officer) at the doorstep of each voter. Voters will have 7 to 10 days to fill in their details. This door-to-door verification is based on 2002 electoral roll when the last SIR was conducted. However, in the case of Assam this process is called “Special revision” and reference is taken from the existing electoral roll and does not involve aggressive citizenship verification as National Register of Citizens (NRC) data already exists.

• Collection Phase:

After the distribution is completed, the BLO will again visit every household to collect the filled-in EF forms.

• Draft electoral roll Publication:

The first draft of electoral rolls was published on 9^th Dec 2025. Voters who do not find their names in the list must contact the ERO (Electoral Registration Officer) of their constituency with the necessary supporting documents to claim correction or inclusion.

• Hearing and Verification Phase:

For states and UTs other than West Bengal – claims and objections are filed and hearing is conducted by ERO with verification of facts. In case of West Bengal, this phase was replaced by Supreme Court by introducing the two-tier appellate system where individuals whose name were incorrectly removed or added in the draft list can appeal to the judicial officers like district judge, etc. (who replace the EROs).

• Final Electoral Rolls Publication:

Final Electoral roll was published on 7^th Feb 2026 based on adjudication done during the hearing and verification phase.

• Appeal Phase:

For states and UTs other than West Bengal, they have the following way – First appeal against the order of ERO; for exclusion or inclusion in draft or final electoral roll; is made to the DM (District Magistrate) and if applicant is not satisfied then second appeal can be made to CEO (Chief Election Officer of the ECI appointed for the respective state).

For the case of West Bengal, as mentioned earlier, Supreme court has directed for creation of two-tier appellate mechanism. Individuals removed from the draft rolls were permitted to first approach judicial officers (who replace the EROs) and thereafter appellate tribunals (who replace the DM and CEO) headed by former Chief Justices and senior High Court judges.

Further, as per Articles 226 and 32 of the Indian Constitution allows judicial review, by High court and Supreme court respectively, of the decision made by appellate tribunals or CEOs orders.

• Supplementary Electoral Rolls Publication⁶

The supreme court has directed the inclusion of the voters whose appeals have been decided by the appellate tribunals to be included in the supplementary electoral rolls by 21 April for phase 1 West Bengal elections and April 27 for phase 2 West Bengal elections.

Even the appeals decided in the favor of applicant at DM or CEO level are added in the supplementary electoral rolls.

Data availability and Methodology.

The breakup of data provided by the ECI with respect to total deletions made due to SIR process has been given as Deceased, permanently shifted, Missing, Duplicates/ Bogus, other reasons. These sub categories have been also not been clearly mentioned in ECI websites with many sub categories being clubbed like – “permanently shifted and missing” are often clubbed and mentioned during the ECI press conferences and reported by the Media. Further, it can be construed that “permanently shifted” category includes those shifted within the same constituency, or within the same state or outside the state. Further, the procedure for shifting of residence is notified to ECI through filling of Form 8 which is available on ECI website⁷ in English and Hindi.

However, one cannot determine quantum of In-migrants were included in the draft or final electoral rolls as no break up was given for total additions by the ECI. Further, quantum of out-migrants excluded from the draft or final list adjusted with minor additions from supplementary electoral rolls also cannot be determined from the data and categorization (mentioned above) made available by the ECI due to vast scope of the term “permanently shifted”.

Hence, for the purpose of this research paper – quantum of migrants affected by SIR is being calculated based on secondary research and guesstimation.

Data available from the secondary research

1. In – migration rate

Below mentioned table has the ‘in-migrants’ (A person who has come into a particular area from somewhere else area) with 3 broad Subcategories. The first category “from same state” includes intra electoral constituency and intra state migration. Further, reason for In-migrations are as follows: search of employment, in search of better employment, business, to take up employment / better employment, transfer of service/ contract, proximity to place of work, studies, marriage, social/political problems (riots, terrorism, political refugee, bad law and order, etc.), displacement by development project, scarcity of water, acquisition of own house/ flat, housing problems/ insufficient land holding, health care, postretirement, natural disaster (drought, flood, tsunami, etc.), migration of parent/earning member of the family, other reasons., have also been clubbed under this statistic. Further, urban, rural, male, female, and reason for migration – figures have also been clubbed for this research.

Table A: In – Migration rate

Source: Table 27 and Table 28, NSS Report No. 589 ⁸

1. ‘Percentage of persons willing to move out from the present place of residence’ rate

One can obtain and rely upon “percentage of persons willing to move out from the present place of residence” from the aforementioned report. We will assume this figure as ‘out-migration’ rate after making relevant adjustments in the analysis part later in the research paper (Out-migrant: A person who has left a particular area to go somewhere else). Reasons for “willing” to move out are as follows: due to search of employment, in search of better employment, business, to take up employment / better employment, transfer of service/ contract, proximity to place of work, studies, marriage, social/political problems (riots, terrorism, political refugee, bad law and order, etc.), displacement by development project, scarcity of water, acquisition of own house/ flat, housing problems/ insufficient land holding, health care, postretirement, natural disaster (drought, flood, tsunami, etc.), migration of parent/earning member of the family, other reasons. Further, urban, rural, male, female, and reason for migration – figures have also been clubbed for this research.

Table B: Percentage of persons willing to move out from the present place of residence’ rate

Source Report dated: March 2023

Source: Table 33 and Table 34, NSS Report No. 589 ⁸

1. SIR processed total deletions are as follows:

Table C: Total Deletions made by SIR process

Other information:

Note: Above Table C data is derived from reports analysis draft electoral rolls and not on the final electoral list as no media report or ECI statement giving the breakup of data is available.

*Source: Source: The Scroll, 27^th Dec 2025 ⁹

#Source: The Federal, 16^th Dec 2025 ¹⁰

^Source:  The News Minute, 19^th Dec 2025 ¹¹

1. Total electors before and after SIR 2025-2026

Table D: Total voters before and after SIR

*News on AIR, 10 Feb 2026 ¹²

Deputy Secretary and Joint CEO Assam¹³

#Additional CEO West Bengal, 28 Feb 2026¹⁴

^South First, 23 Feb 2026 ¹⁵

Note: Total voters after SIR takes into calculation addition of new voters, addition through enumeration forms, deletions and those ‘under adjudication’ as well. Voter through supplementary electoral lists have not been added in the ‘total voters after SIR’ as they are negligible in quantum.

Data Analysis

One must first understand the total quantum of migrants affected by the SIR process of ECI. As mentioned previously, from the total deletions “permanently shifted” can include both in migrants and out migrants. Further, in the case of west Bengal, approx. 60 lakh voters are under adjudication, hence they cannot be classified as migrants or resident voters. Further, News report by The Hindu¹⁶ mentions shifted and missing voters have been clubbed together in case of Tamil Nadu.

Further, many migrants have come back to their residential place and followed the cumbersome procedure who are not captured by this figure of “shifted” as they chose to retain their choice of voting in their home town.  Hence, one can calculate actual “migrants” impacted by the SIR process through alternative calculation based on aforementioned secondary researched data.

 Table E: Computation of total migrants affected by SIR

*Out-migration rate is calculated based on ‘persons willing to move out rate’ × 40% (ad hoc percentage used as conservative approach, as not everyone who is willing to move will actually move out).

Table F: Computation of hidden or unaccounted migrants who are also impacted by SIR.

Interpretation of data analysis:

From the Table A one can read that majority of the In-migrant workers are from within the same state, from Table B and Table E one can conclude, that out migrant workers are significantly less part of the affected migrant population. Further, from Table F we can conclude that most of the migrants affected are unaccounted within the official reports of ECI.

Hence, we can conclude that most migrants affected are in migrants and they come from within the same state and are unable to vote as their names have been deleted from the electoral rolls due to SIR. This is very surprising as people assume migration is usually interstate and mostly interstate migrants are affected.

For the purposes of this analysis, and in line with NSS Report No. 589, migrants are operationally defined as persons who have shifted to their present place of residence and have completed a minimum duration of six months at that location. Hence, this secondary research and quantitative data analysis does not capture short term, temporary and circular migrants, who are also important for this research.

Further, the % of people willing to move out and out migrant % is very less compared to secondary sources like in case of west Bengal it can be 25 lakhs, which is still an underestimation, reports The Telegraph India¹⁷.

Impact of SIR on migrant workers

Now, one needs to understand ‘how’ the migrant workers are affected by the SIR process. The same has been discussed below:

1. Wrongful deletion: Voter named C Geetha was wrongful deleted without any due notice of deletion or mention in the deletion list, she came to know about deletion when she filed for nomination to stand in elections in Tamil Nadu, reports The News Minute¹⁸.  This also raises principles of natural justice as Madras high court and Supreme court refuse to entertain her. Further, lakhs of voters across Tamil Nadu, west Bengal and Assam have reported wrongful deletion despite possessing valid documents. Now they juggle the DM/CEO/Judicial officers/Tribunal’s office and their work and family.

• Documentation challenges and voter registration: Various documents are required during filing out enumeration form and appeals and unofficially during door-to-door verification as well. Documents such as Birth certificate, Pan card, Aadhar card, class X and XII school certificate, 2002 electoral roll name, water electricity bill, passport (if any), land registration, sale deed, etc. These documents are used to verify age, identity, place of birth, lineage and residence.  However, one should know that basic document such as ‘birth certificate’ is not available with everyone (at national level only 88.2% of Indians possess birth certificate which is an over estimation). As per Siliguri Times¹⁹, many voters faced issue of address correction, discrepancies in family details, non-possession of many documents like some never attended schools hence don’t possess school certificates, don’t possess birth certificates as they were born at home and parents did not register them, parents passed away long time ago so unable to prove lineage. Further, voter registration was followed by door-to-door verification due to SIR, this led to process being more exclusionary as migrant voters were not available every day at home, as many left home as soon as they were done filling out the forms. Further, Live law²⁰ reported how migrant workers who are transgender or engage in sex work have been adversely affected by SIR as they do not possess most of the documents as they are kicked out of their homes for their identity and cut off ties from their parents and family.

• Mobility and electoral participation:

Cost of commuting and cost to vote are enormous in case of migrant workers. One such instance; mentioned by The Telegraph India¹⁷; of Saokat Ali who has spent more than ₹11,000 on repeated trips between Kerala and his home in north Bengal since the revision of electoral rolls began. He has already lost around 50 workdays, translating into wages of at least ₹40,000. Despite the financial strain and effort, his name has been struck off the electoral rolls. Ali wants to know who will compensate him for his losses. Worse, with no clarity on the process ahead, the uncertainty continues to mount. Ali, 55, a migrant worker from Malda, works as a mason in the construction sector in Kozhikode, north Kerala. He earns between ₹800 and ₹1,000 for a day’s work. “I can’t think straight now. There are too many questions and no answers. How do I file an appeal? Do I need a lawyer? Can I be present when my case is decided in the tribunal?” said Ali. “I never thought such a day would come.” He had first returned home in late October to fill out the SIR enumeration form when the exercise began. He returned to work about a week later. He came again in early February and has been in his village since, hoping to see his name restored on the rolls.

Figure 1: Image from the Telegraph India news article

• Questions on citizenship, right to vote and end of welfare schemes:  Many migrant workers have been told by their employers to show them proof of having voted, so as to be able to prove that they are not “Bangladeshi”, reports The Wire²¹. Further in the same report- “If there had been food and livelihood here, would my husband have needed to go so far away? There was no work given to us, and now even the right to vote is being taken away. What kind of government is this? Do they not consider poor people as human beings? Are we not citizens of India?” asked by a wife of a migrant worker. Further, report mentions of MNREGA being halted due to allegations of “Bangladeshi” on migrant workers and constant action of checking documents by the employer and authorities.

Figure 2: Wife of migrant worker, Source: The Wire

Policy Recommendations:

1. Affirming Right to vote as ‘Fundamental Right’ – The Supreme court²²in its recent judgement mentioned it is a constitutional right and not fundamental right. However, policymakers should know that voting is very closely linked to citizenship, and the image is very blurry for the citizens who are discriminated due to deletion of their name in electoral rolls. Hence, affirming right to vote as fundamental right would enable state, judiciary and executive to treat right to vote in utmost care and prevent discrimination based on voting rights.

• Allowing principle of Natural justice to prevail

Although the constitution of India mentions “procedure established by law” in Article 21 – right to life and liberty. Nothing stops the policy makers to uphold natural justice and allow sufficient time for all voters including migrant voters to settle their matter at appellate tribunal or appropriate court before deleting their name from the voter list. Senior citizens who have been voting for each and every election have mentioned 2002 SIR was very smooth and transparent why is the existing SIR being done in hurry? Migrant voters need time and money to keep traveling to ECI office/ appellate offices in their home town, which can happen when natural justice principles are followed. One must remember, SIR has been conducted in the past several times, without much issues, unlike this time.

• Judicial Intervention in ECI’s work and reporting:

Like in case of West Bengal, Judicial officers were appointed and appellate tribunal was setup, for rest of the states; Judiciary or the policy makers ought to set up independent appellate tribunals where the general voters including migrant voters can trust the process. Reporting of all the figures including – migrant voters data needs to be mentioned for efficient policy making.

• Availing ECI forms in regional language in online method.

All the forms on the online mode are available only in English and Hindi, many regional, scheduled, non-scheduled languages have been missed out. ECI’s motto is ‘No voter should be left behind’ should be upheld in action.

• Removing of ‘Door to door’ verification:

Residence can be proven by documents through electricity bill, water bill, Aadhar card, current passbook of nationalised bank/post office/scheduled bank, Revenue Department’s Land-owning records including Kisan Bahi, Registered Rent Lease Deed (In case of tenant), Registered Sale Deed (In case of own house), etc. Then why is there is another layer of verification through “door to door” method? If right to vote is not fundamental right but a mere constitutional right, they why the process of SIR is such rigorous?

• Monetary compensation to fill out enumeration form and be present for door-to-door verification:

We have seen there is cost of mobility, cost of voting involved through travelling, loss of wages, burning up of savings. ECI or policy makers can ease such SIR process by compensating in cash or online method by making conditional cash transfers and conditions being present for door-to-door verification, filling out the enumeration form and timely submission of documents.

• Huge oversight over use of AI/software for removing duplicates:

ECI have used softwares/AI to remove duplicate entries and ease the process of SIR. They even mandated BLO on ground verification as a check over the software results. However, more checks and balances are required such as publicly mentioning the details of software used, IT audit report, with verification of documents submitted by the applicant and assigning additional officers with BLO to do alternate checks to the houses allotted to BLO for transparency. Thus, there can be checks and balances if intended by the policy makers.

Conclusion

While SIR is required from time to time to remove the duplicate, bogus and ineligible people from the electoral roll. However, the plight of migrants cannot be ignored as they are one of the most vulnerable communities in India and one of the biggest contributors to the Indian GDP.

In the aforementioned research, migrant workers within India including in the three states Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have been adversely affected by the SIR process be it through non possession of documents, documentation error correction, wrongful deletion, unable to appeal on time, cost of mobility and voting, disenfranchisement, and most importantly question on their citizenship.

Further, majority of the impact on migrant workers still remains unaccounted in the official government and ECI reports quantitatively and qualitatively. This unaccounted impact and underestimation of figures is leading to further exclusion of migrant workers in policy making and effective implementation, and in effect exclusion from the society. Mainstream media has been mainly focused on SIR in West Bengal, with less focus on Tamil Nadu and almost no focus on impact in Assam.

To avoid such policy disaster in other states, mistakes and mis plannings must be rectified by the ECI immediately as SIR is a nationwide process. Judiciary must exercise its judicial review powers and protect the rights and dignity of migrant workers. Media houses must not only focus on electorally crucial spots but also focus on vulnerable community spots across states for more fair reporting.

References

1. Karthikeyan Suchitra. “Explained: Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and ‘fear of NRC’”. The Hindu, 10 July 2025.

https://www.thehindu.com/elections/bihar-assembly/explained-special-intensive-revision-of-electoral-rolls-in-bihar-and-fear-of-nrc/article69791775.ece

• “General Elections to Legislative Assemblies and bye-elections 2026”. PIB Delhi, 20 April 2026 https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2253728&reg=3&lang=1
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https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2186480&reg=3&lang=2

• “Special Intensive Revision”. Election Commission of India. https://www.eci.gov.in/eci-backend/public/api/download?url=LMAhAK6sOPBp%2FNFF0iRfXbEB1EVSLT41NNLRjYNJJP1KivrUxbfqkDatmHy12e%2FzX%2FLARKC1lI3JwqUiIIk3e9a5deFn8sYeCGEvmhY1eKxnvxsalQ0d0BNaW1QGwL8b5dWfC0v6WB9pbj6BhsnOvg%3D%3D
• “Partial relief for Bengal’s deleted voters as SC allows conditional roll revision”. National Herald, 16 April 2026. https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/national/partial-relief-for-bengals-deleted-voters-as-supreme-court-allows-conditional-roll-revision
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https://voters.eci.gov.in

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https://scroll.in/latest/1089609/assam-over-10-lakh-voters-identified-to-be-deleted-as-part-of-special-revision-of-electoral-rolls

1. “EC publishes Bengal’s SIR draft list; over 58 lakh voter names deleted”. The Federal, 16 December 2025.
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https://www.thenewsminute.com/tamil-nadu/nearly-9737-lakh-names-deleted-in-tamil-nadus-electoral-roll-after-sir

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https://www.newsonair.gov.in/eci-publishes-final-voter-list-for-special-revision-in-assam-extends-west-bengal-sir-deadline-to-feb-28

1. Deputy Secretary and Joint CEO, Assam. “Press Note – Special Revision, 2026”. Election Commission of India. https://ceoassam.nic.in/summary/2026/Press%20note.pdf
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https://ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in/Downloads/News/Final%20Press%20Note%20CEO-PN-05-2026.pdf

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https://thesouthfirst.com/tamilnadu/tamil-nadus-final-electoral-roll-2026-published-electorate-stands-at-5-67-crore

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https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/final-electoral-roll-tamil-nadu-live-updates-february-23-2026/article70665752.ece

1. Mitra Debraj. “Migrants’ fight for voting rights takes steep toll; poverty and SIR burden the workers”.  The Telegraph, 5 April 2026.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/kolkata/migrants-fight-for-voting-rights-takes-steep-toll-poverty-and-sir-burden-the-workers-prnt/cid/2154662#goog_rewarded

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https://www.thenewsminute.com/tamil-nadu/supreme-court-refuses-to-restore-womans-name-deleted-in-tamil-nadu-voter-roll-revision

1. “SIR hearings begin in Rajganj, voters face difficulties over lack of documents”. Siliguri Times, 29 December 2025

https://siliguritimes.com/sir-hearings-begin-in-rajganj-voters-face-difficulties-over-lack-of-documents

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https://www.livelaw.in/articles/voter-roll-sir-verification-transgender-sex-workers-identity-document-exclusion-right-to-vote-312157

• Chatterjee Madhu Sudan. “As Bengal Votes in Phase One, Its Deleted Migrant Labourers Are in No-Man’s Land”. The Wire, 23 April 2026

https://thewire.in/communalism/bengal-election-phase-one-murshidabad-migrant-labourers-jobs-deletion-sir

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https://indianexpress.com/article/legal-news/supreme-court-right-to-vote-contest-not-fundamental-rights-10630772