Jharkhand SIR: Married women bring Bihar, UP electoral roll data to get mapped in Palamu
THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK Daltonganj, August 27: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is gathering pace in Jharkhand’s Palamu district,…
ERO of Bishrampur Assembly constituency Kundan Kumar at an SIR camp in Bishrampur recently.
THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, August 27: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is gathering pace in Jharkhand’s Palamu district, but the exercise is throwing up an unusual challenge. Married women who moved to Jharkhand from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are bringing electoral-roll records from their parental homes to establish their credentials and get their names mapped in the state’s electoral rolls.
As many as 72,760 electors across Palamu’s five Assembly constituencies remain unmapped, with the urban Daltonganj constituency accounting for the highest number—more than 21,000 electors.
For many married women, popularly referred to as bahus, their electoral records in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have become crucial to completing the mapping process in Jharkhand.
“I have brought this page of the electoral roll from my maikey (parental home) in Bihar or UP. Map me here in Jharkhand’s Palamu. Otherwise, I am not going to bother whether my name remains in the electoral roll here or not,” is a common refrain at SIR camps in Palamu, said Kundan Kumar, Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Bishrampur Assembly constituency and Additional Collector.
“Map me. I have presented a photocopy of the 2003 SIR electoral roll from UP or Bihar. Beyond this, I have nothing more to establish my credentials,” Kumar quoted some of the women as saying at an SIR camp at the Bishrampur block office.
Officials struggle to verify records
The verification process is proving time-consuming as officials attempt to match the records of married women with those of their parents in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
“Our personnel are doing two things. First, they try to calm the bahus, who show their anger at the electoral roll process. Second, they explain to them how important the SIR exercise is for them,” Kumar said.
He acknowledged that the process was taking considerable time but said it could not be avoided.
“It is taking a good deal of time. But it cannot be left undone. It has to be completed as far as practicable,” he said.
EPIC numbers used for digital verification
SIR teams are conducting digital searches to trace and match the electoral records of the women with those of their parents, who largely reside in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
According to sources, officials are using the EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) numbers of the parents to conduct digital searches and establish the required linkage.
However, discrepancies in names and spellings are emerging as a major hurdle in the mapping process.
Daltonganj woman waits for mapping
This correspondent met one such applicant, Nitu Srivastava, in Daltonganj. Srivastava, wife of Ajay Srivastava, principal of Zenith School, Daltonganj, is awaiting mapping with her father, who lives in Sasaram, Bihar.
Her case remains unresolved because of a spelling mismatch in her father’s name, according to sources at the SIR camp at Brahmin High School in Daltonganj.
“We have spent two full days at the Brahmin High School SIR camp for the mapping, but in vain. We do not know how many more days my wife, Nitu, will have to go through this ordeal before she comes out of the ‘no mapping’ category of the electoral roll,” said an exasperated Ajay Srivastava.
