Bengal SIR row: SC, ST activists urge ECI to simplify rules and set up relief camps

Representatives of marginalized communities appealed to state election officials for simplification of the rules of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls for people belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Matua and other disadvantaged communities at risk of disenfranchisement due to lack of identification documents.

“The scheduled caste vote in the state is roughly 34%. Of this, more than a hundred are sub-castes. Nearly 30 to 40 lakh people from marginalized communities, in our view, will not be able to produce any document to prove their rights as voters. Therefore, we have appealed to the governor and election officials to simplify the rules of SIR for these communities,” Mrityunjoy Mallick, national president of the Scheduled Caste Federation, said at the Chief’s office Electoral. West Bengal officer in Kolkata on Saturday (December 6, 2025).

He added that they came to demand protection of the rights of marginalized people on Mahaparinirvan Diwas, which is celebrated on December 6 every year on the occasion of the death anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar.

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, the organization appealed to marginalized people to be able to connect with any family member whose name appears on the 2002 electoral roll. For context, during SIR, voters who can trace their own name or the names of their parents on the 2002 list would automatically be eligible for the draft electoral roll.

“We have demanded that for marginalized people, if any familial connection through grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. is found in the 2002 list, their franchise should be protected as long as they live. Especially for people like the forest-dwelling Adivasis, the Rajbanshis, the nomadic Bede community, the sanitation workers, the cremation workers, for whom resources and documents are scarce,” Mr Mallick said.

He added that many people from marginalized communities are born in homes and do not have birth certificates.

“The list of 12 indicative identification documents also includes caste certificates, domicile certificates, land deeds, etc. We urge the Election Commission to organize camps so that marginalized people who do not have these documents can get them,” the activist said.

In their letter, the Scheduled Caste Federation has also appealed for attention to married women whose surnames may not match their names in the 2002 list, and people displaced across West Bengal, especially due to breaches of embankments.

“There have been several cases of displacement and socio-economic hardship that have resulted in people from marginalized communities dispossessing or losing their identity documents. These people are in a constant struggle to secure their lives and livelihoods. They have not had time to think about documents all this while,” Mr Mallick said.

He added that the voters who are alive between 2002 and 2025 and cast their votes for the formation of the current Union government and the state government “must be protected.”

Since December 6, 99.43% of enumeration forms of 7.66 crore voters have been successfully collected and digitized. On Saturday, the number of ‘irrecoverable’ forms of dead, shifted, duplicate or absentee voters crossed the 55 lakh mark.