In a poignant echo of a classic Bollywood plight, thousands of orphaned and abandoned citizens in Kolkata now face a real-world struggle that threatens their fundamental democratic right: the right to vote. The issue centers on the Election Commission's (EC) mandatory requirement for parental documentation during the ongoing process of rectifying logical discrepancies in the electoral roll, a process that could see their names struck off the final list.
The 'Laawaris' Voter's Dilemma
The situation uncannily mirrors the 1981 blockbuster film 'Laawaris', where the orphaned protagonist Heera, played by Amitabh Bachchan, famously sang 'Jiska koi nahin uska to khuda hai yaaron'. Today, in 2024, the question is whether the system will save these modern-day Heeras. The ongoing Summary Revision (SIR) hearing for logical discrepancies has placed the voting rights of many orphaned or abandoned individuals at stake. Booth Level Officers (BLOs), attending these hearings in the presence of micro observers and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), fear a significant number of these electors will be purged from the list scheduled for release next month.
Personal Stories Highlight Systemic Hurdles
The human cost of this bureaucratic mandate is stark. Take the case of 38-year-old Rekha Sarkhel from Tollygunge. She never saw her father and has only a faint memory of her mother, who remarried and abandoned her when she was four. "I was given shelter and reared by a distant relative whom I call uncle. I did not marry and stayed in his house. He died during the pandemic," she explained. During the voter enumeration drive, the BLO collected her uncle's documents. However, Rekha still received a hearing notice. "Even though I explained my situation to the officials, they told me submission of parental documents was mandatory. I am not responsible for what my parents did to me," she rued.
Her case is not isolated. According to EC norms, individuals born between 1987 and 2004 must provide a birth certificate along with documents establishing their parents' place of birth. An ERO clarified that Aadhaar and Voter ID cards are insufficient to prove citizenship for this process; documents proving birth and parental origin are compulsory. For those born before 1987, no documents are needed if their names were on the 2002 electoral list.
Official Process Leaves No Room for Exception
A BLO from Howrah detailed the procedural dead end. "There are some voters who do not have their parents' documents. Some claimed their parents got separated and remarried, abandoning them. Initially, micro observers gave consent on sympathetic grounds to accept documents from other kin in lieu of parents'. Now that the formal hearing is on, EC officials have rejected these documents." These voters have been marked in the 'documents not found' category, which typically leads to deletion from the final electoral roll.
The technical framework appears rigidly designed to exclude alternative proofs. BLOs report that the Election Commission's software has been configured to only accept parental documents for uploading to rectify voters' logical flaws. This systemic design leaves little room for the unique circumstances of individuals who have no record or connection to their biological parents.
As the deadline for finalizing the rolls approaches, the fate of these citizens hangs in the balance. The situation raises critical questions about inclusivity in India's democratic machinery and whether procedural requirements inadvertently disenfranchise some of society's most vulnerable individuals, who, like the cinematic Heera, have no one but the state to look up to.
