noida, india
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The enormous task of updating the world’s longest voter list is underway. This is India. Nearly 1 billion people need to know their details before joining the world’s largest democracy.
Tens of thousands of public servants across the country are scrambling to manually enter voter details into databases. And in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, the deadline is New Year’s Eve.
The last list was from 2003, and authorities say they need to clean up the list to reflect mass migration from rural areas to cities, an increase in the number of deceased voters, and to illegally remove people on the list.
Twelve states and union territories, home to about 500 million people, have been releasing updates since early November to scrutinize which voters will be able to take part in the next round of voting.
Prem Lata, a school teacher, is one of more than 500,000 civil servants drawn into the project. Starting in early November, she started waking up at 5 a.m., and her shifts often extended into the night. For this work, she and other booth-level executives are paid an additional 1,000 rupees ($11) each month.
“There’s a lot of stress and pressure and there’s not enough time,” she told CNN from her school on the outskirts of the capital, New Delhi. It is currently an office.
“We spend all day doing this and even do it until 12 or 1 a.m., so of course it’s stressful and your body hurts. After all, it’s a human body, not a machine.”
This challenge is not helped by India’s Byzantine bureaucracy.
Since 2003, countless people have moved hundreds of miles in search of new jobs. Many women take their husband’s surname when they get married. And many people, especially the poor, have no knowledge of the registration process and do not have one of the 12 government-issued documents required for verification.
In India’s violent and overzealous political system, tampering with voter lists is subject to intense scrutiny and even litigation.
Critics of the ruling Hindu nationalist government say the exercise is being used to exclude minorities, a charge the government denies.
Opposition parties claim the local councilor was wrongly declared dead. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against booth-level officials for alleged dereliction of duty, and there have even been more than a dozen cases in which election workers committed suicide under pressure, according to data submitted to Congress.
At the large Noida school, which has recently expanded from the capital New Delhi, Lata and seven other booth-level officials are making calls and tracking down surnames on the list. Their students sit in the sun and color in their notebooks, both at school and practically on holiday.
“Please send your details on WhatsApp or your name will be removed,” Lata says to those who have not yet returned the required documents. “Today is the last day, so don’t ask me why it was canceled later.”
Mr Lata has been given verification to 945 voters and has so far succeeded in verifying 600 of them. “Of the rest, some have migrated, some have died, and others are untraceable,” she told CNN.
Ruby Verma, another booth-level official, said it’s not just lateness, but some people simply don’t see the need to cooperate.
“People will say I’m already registered as a voter, so why do I need all these details again? They don’t understand the concept of verification,” she added. “It’s a thankless process.”
Since India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and became the world’s largest democracy, it has revised its voter list eight times.
The last time it was done in 2003, there were about 600 million voters nationwide and the process took more than six months.
This time, authorities gave booth officials just a month to verify nearly 500 million voters in 12 states and union territories. The deadline has been extended twice in most states and four times in the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, leaving officials like Lata struggling to find some electors and citizens struggling to find the necessary documents.
Geeta Rana, 40, is one of them. Since the list was last updated, she moved home and took her husband’s last name. Her parents are also deceased and she does not know in which constituency she has voted before, but this is a necessary detail to prove that she is a legitimate voter.
“My daughter is 19 years old, so she’s registered to vote this year,” Lana told CNN. “But her vote will be tied to my vote. If my vote is not verified, it’s not just my vote that’s lost, but her vote, too.”
It’s a common problem at Lata’s school. Many of those seeking to confirm their voting rights are migrant workers from out of state, making tracking down documents and parental details more complicated.
Critics of the government say it is using the exercise to remove opposition supporters from voter lists.
In West Bengal, another state currently verifying its electoral roll, more than 5.8 million people have been removed, according to a draft list released on December 16.
The party said almost half of those names are deceased, including at least one municipal councilor from the All India Trinamool Congress, one of Mr. Modi’s biggest opponents who currently rules the state.
Similarly, millions of names have been removed from voter lists in states such as Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, according to a draft law released earlier this month.
Other opposition parties and activists point out that the documents authorities are asking voters to submit in place of their existing voter IDs are documents normally used to establish citizenship.
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah defended the process. He recently told parliament that updating the voter list is “nothing less than a verification of legitimate voters.”
“Should people be able to vote in more than one place? Should people who have passed away be included on the voter list?”
In Lata’s home state of Uttar Pradesh, several police complaints have been registered against workers recruited to update voter rolls for allegedly violating “official duty”.
“I have worked as a teacher for 20 years, so of course it is scary to think that I may lose my job after so many years. But we also do not want people to lose their right to vote, so we are doing everything in our power to complete this task,” Lata said.
As stress levels rise and deadlines approach, Lata and her colleagues make the most of lighter moments.
Like the difficulties caused by two neighbors named Suraj Chauhan whose parents also have similar names. Or eight different people living in eight different regions, all appearing to have the same father.
“I don’t feel like it’s going to end,” Lata said. “It’s persistent and we haven’t got all the voters in line yet, so it would be good if the deadline was extended. Otherwise, we’ll just be submitting what we have.”
It has not yet been determined when other states in India will follow the same process, but authorities hope to have it completed before the next general election, scheduled for 2029.
But even if the state submits a new list, Lata’s work is not over.
“Once this is done, we have to start registering new voters,” she said. “And with the election coming up, of course we have to get back to what we’re actually paid to do, which is teach kids.”
This article has been updated to reflect the deadline extension in Uttar Pradesh.
