Usha Paul and her sister Maya, residents of an old-age home in a village in Howrah, are worried about whether they will stay voters after the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is over.

Although their names appeared in the electoral rolls in both 2002 and 2025, and they managed to file enumeration forms after at least a dozen attempts from a low-network zone, the sisters’ fears remain unresolved.

“We are no longer residents of the area where we had been voters for decades,” said 70-year-old Usha, who used to live in Sarsuna, Behala, until 2021.

She now stays with her sister Maya, 67, at Ananda Ashram Joutha Paribar — an NGO-run old-age home in Khalna village of Howrah’s Jaypur block.

“Why should people like us go through so much stress for this exercise? Why didn’t the Election Commission send a team here to enrol us in the local booth? Are we not citizens? I have been voting in Calcutta since my college days,” said Usha.

The unmarried sisters, both graduates of Sarsuna College, became lonely after their parents passed away. In 2021, they finally sold their house in Behala and shifted to an old-age home.

Since the announcement of the SIR, the Paul sisters, along with 24 other inmates, have been discussing how to fill up the enumeration forms and whether their names would finally appear on the voter list.

“At first, we had no option but to go to Behala to submit our forms. It was difficult to find someone who could submit the forms online. Finally, a kind person helped us submit them,” said Maya.

But they do not know if the online submission will be accepted or if their names will be on the final roll, she added.

“If officials come for physical verification, they won’t find us at our old address. We have heard that in such cases, people are marked ‘untraceable’. Though our names are in the draft roll, anyone can raise a complaint to have us removed,” Usha said.

A senior official said that if complaints are lodged, the sisters would be summoned for a physical hearing at the returning officer's office in Calcutta.

“We are elderly and suffer from several ailments. We cannot go to Behala, nor do we have any place to stay there or money to book a hotel,” said Maya.

“If officials cannot physically locate us at our old address, our names may be automatically deleted,” Usha said.

Mantu Shee, who runs the old-age home under the NGO Kamina Social Welfare Society, said the sisters were among the few residents who managed to submit forms online.

“Most of our inmates could not do so because they don’t know their booth details or lack documents. Many of them are distressed and stay here free of cost — it’s more like charity. These two sisters are educated and had all the documents,” Shee said.

There are 29 state-run old-age homes in Bengal and more than 30 supported by the government. According to a source, over 6,000 elderly people live in these facilities. However, a much larger number reside in hundreds of NGO-run homes. Though the government has no official record of these small facilities, the number is estimated to be at least 200.

Multiple owners of old-age homes said that as they did not have an umbrella organisation, they had no concrete data about private establishments and the number of inmates.

At another old-age home, Amragari Briddhashram, around 8km from Khalna, Howrah, run by a local club, inmate Maya Majumdar, 80, said she had not filed her enumeration form.

Maya lived in Hind Motor, Hooghly, until eight years ago. After losing all her family, she took refuge in the old-age home.

“I am 80. Do you think I can go around searching for officials to register my name? I don’t have a phone. I am alone — this is my last address. I want to vote, but how can I? The government doesn’t bother about us,” she said.

Shankar Khan, a functionary of the home, said they could do little for inmates with no families.

“We heard that Election Commission teams would visit us, but no one came. Some inmates with relatives could go back home for the process. But those who are alone are out of the loop,” Khan said.

An official in the chief electoral officer's office said: "BLOs should visit old-age homes with enumeration forms and help them fill them up. They can upload forms on the BLO app by December 11."