NEW DELHI: Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has come under sharp scrutiny amid concerns that the documentation criteria set by the Election Commission.
As per the EC’s guidelines, voters must furnish at least one of 11 documents to verify their identity and place of birth. These include birth certificate, passport, matriculation or higher education certificate, government-issued identity card or pension payment order (PPO), permanent residence (domicile) certificate, forest rights certificate, caste certificate, NRC document (if available), a family register, a land or house allotment certificate, or any government or PSU identity document issued before July 1, 1987. Two of India’s most commonly held IDs—EPIC and Aadhaar—have been excluded from the list.
A recent report, ‘For a Few Documents More’, published by the Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), paints a grim picture of the state’s documentary landscape. Field surveys across 10 districts revealed that only 35% of migrant workers possessed any of the documents listed under SIR. Among rural poor families, the figure was even lower.
The report highlights a major flaw: a handful of households—mostly urban, upper-caste, salaried, and male-headed—possess multiple documents, while the majority have none. This overlap creates an illusion of wider coverage, while deepening the exclusion of the already marginalised. Many documents require prior papers to obtain—a passport needs a birth certificate, which in turn may demand school records—compounding the bureaucratic burden.
Take birth certificates, for example. Only 6.2% of people born before 2005 had their births registered. Today, just 3% hold valid certificates. That leaves over 90% of Bihar’s adult population unable to use this foundational document.
Passports fare no better, with only 1.5% of the population possessing one—mostly the urban affluent. Matriculation or higher education certificates, another accepted proof, are held by 15% of the population, as per the 2023 caste survey.
Access to government-issued ID cards or PPOs is limited to state employees and pensioners, who make up merely 1.57% of population. Domicile certificates are often blocked by procedural delays. Citizens are asked to provide older certificates to get new ones—creating what SWAN terms a “circular burden of proof.” Bribes reportedly further restrict access.
Forest rights certificates are available in principle to Scheduled Tribes, who form 1.68% of population. In practice, however, the issuance remains minimal, due to lack of administrative outreach and the limited forest-dwelling population.
Caste certificates, while seemingly accessible to roughly 85% SC/ST/OBC/EBC population, are plagued by administrative hurdles. According to SWAN, many Muslims and Dalits either do not have valid certificates or were issued ones with incorrect sub-caste classifications, rendering them unusable for official purposes.
The inclusion of NRC documents has raised eyebrows, as Bihar has never implemented the National Register of Citizens. The addition of a non-existent document reinforces fears that the SIR exercise may serve as a proxy for a broader citizenship filtering agenda.
Equally premature is the inclusion of the family register. The state’s proposed “Social Register” remains under construction, with no household having been issued any such document as of July 2025.
1 of 11 documents must for voters
Voters must furnish at least one of 11 documents—birth cert, passport, matriculation or higher edu cert, govt-issued identity card or PPO, domicile cert, forest rights, caste cert, NRC document, a family register, land allotment cert, or any govt identity docu issued before July 1, 1987.
Though 97% of households own their homes and 34% of rural households own land, less than 1% possess formal allotment documents. Also, govt identity issued before July 1, 1987 is irrelevant to people. Only a shrinking pool of retired employees could possibly qualify, and even among them, preserved copies are rare. No more than 1.57% of the population may meet this criterion.