Delhi’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls has exposed a verification problem for homeless voters. Booth-level officers report that many such voters do not have documents, family records, or fixed addresses, even as the revision proceeds toward its scheduled deadlines.
The electoral roll was frozen before the exercise and had about 1.45 crore voters. Election officials say 10,448 homeless voters are on Delhi’s rolls, and people who sleep regularly at a location can be enrolled there.
Officials say more than 97% of voters have received enumeration forms, but only a fraction have been digitised so far. The revision is scheduled to end on July 29; draft rolls will be published on August 5 and the final roll on October 7.
Booth-level officers working in homeless-heavy areas say addresses on identity cards are often vague and repeated visits are needed. Some voters are being marked shifted when they cannot be traced, which raises the risk of exclusion during roll revision.
The story also highlights the case of Iqbal Khan, a homeless voter who says he has lived on the footpath for more than a decade, has a birth certificate, and remains connected to family in Old Delhi, though he has not spoken to them for years. His forms left the previous-SIR section blank.