The Opposition has sought the removal of the chief election commissioner, alleging that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls carried out under his aegis across 12 states and Union territories has led to “mass disenfranchisement”. While the impeachment and the merit of the charge are matters of parliamentary debate, some worrying data does deserve scrutiny. The SIR was intended to remove duplicate or ineligible voters. Yet the outcomes from several states suggest that women have been disproportionately affected. In Bihar, where the SIR was completed last year, more than 65 lakh names were deleted from the rolls. The gender ratio fell sharply from 907 women per 1,000 men to 892 after the revision, and 31 lakh women were removed from the rolls. Similar patterns appear elsewhere. West Bengal’s gender ratio declined from around 966 women per 1,000 men in the 2024 Lok Sabha rolls to about 956 after the revision as the electorate contracted by 8.06%. Gujarat recorded a fall from roughly 945 to 938 women per 1,000 men, Madhya Pradesh saw the ratio decline from 945 to 934 and Rajasthan’s ratio went from 920 to 911.
These deletions reflect the structural barriers that women encounter in navigating verification procedures. Electoral enumeration depends heavily on documentary proof of residence and identity. Women frequently relocate after marriage and may lack immediate access to documents from their parental homes. Reports from Bihar show that many women struggled to retrieve certificates or records required for verification. Literacy gaps further intensify these difficulties. Women with limited education face greater difficulty completing enumeration forms and responding to official queries. This reveals crucial, but often understated, links among a representative democracy, public goods like education, and gender. The cumulative effect of the deletions is a contraction of women’s political presence within the electorate. Women who already experience economic dependence, restricted mobility, and unequal access to public goods become disproportionately vulnerable to administrative exclusion because a reduction in the number of women voters alters the composition of the electorate and weakens the political incentives for parties to prioritise women’s concerns. Irrespective of concerns about disenfranchisement, it cannot be denied that the SIR has led to measurable shifts that carry long-term implications for Indian women and their place in the polity.