Bihar’s married women scramble for proof to enrol in voters’ list

Kishanganj, Bihar: Should I work for my daily wage or search for papers?” Nirmala Devi fumed about her struggles to secure a document to prove her right to vote. 

The farm worker, hailing from eastern Bihar’s Khagaria district, is one of the numerous married women in the state who are scrambling for a proof to enrol themselves in the voters’ list ahead of the Assembly polls.  

DH came across several such instances during a visit to Khagaria, Begusarai, Purnia and Kishanganj districts.

During the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, the Election Commission listed 11 documents to prove voting eligibility. However, the list doesn’t include Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards, the three most accessible documents to the poor and illiterate.

The EC’s decision has put married women, who were not part of the 2003 electoral roll and had moved out of their paternal home, at a greater disadvantage as they need to provide documentary proof -- residence certificate or property record -- from their paternal home to claim their right.    

The EC published the draft electoral roll on August 1, which omitted around 65 lakh voters for various reasons. While the remaining voters have found a place in the draft rolls, many of them are yet to submit documents to prove their eligibility. Hence, the rush for documents. 

In the frontier district of Kishanganj, which shares its border with West Bengal, Sunil Kumar Sharma, a shopkeeper, was frantically making calls to get a residence certificate for his daughter-in-law Mamta, who is from Kolkata.

“Everything was fine all these years but we are scared if the government  will declare her a Bangladeshi national,” Sharma said.

The issue is more severe for women from marginalised communities.

While the EC admits matriculation certificate/birth certificate/property certificate, most women from marginalised communities possess none of them. 

Notably, more women have been excluded from the draft roll as compared to men. 

At Bharra village in Begusarai, DH met a woman keenly searching a printout of the 2003 voters’ list. 

“I am checking for my parents’ names and thinking of ways to get a residence certificate. I have no birth certificate, school-leaving certificate or any other document,” she said while declining to share her name.

Some other women in the village said those married off to another village (in a separate Assembly constituency) have been asked to submit such documents or risk deletion from the rolls.

They all belonged to the Mahadalit community, the most backward among Scheduled Caste, and said the local booth level officer told them to get any document proving residence, failing which their names would be struck off.

In the neighbouring Bhagalpur, Nikesh Kumar Yadav, 31, vented out his anger at the EC.

“Everyone is in a hardship. My wife has to submit a certificate to prove who her father and mother are. They’re both dead, she owns no property and she’s illiterate. Where do we get such proof?” he asked.

The poll panel has set up camps for the affected voters, but frustration runs high.

“Manoj Master throws our papers away, asking us to bring property records. If your parents are dead, how can you do that now?” rued a woman from the extremely backward Nishad community, in Bhagalpur district, referring to the BLO. 

A block development officer in Purnia admitted that there are certain problems. “The Election Commission may allow BLOs to record the names of such women as a last resort based on their Aadhar card, but such cases shouldn’t exceed 10 to 15 per jurisdiction,” he said.

Several BLOs told DH that women were indeed facing difficulties.