The All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA-NAPM) has urged the Election Commission of India to prevent eligible women and transgender persons above 18 from being excluded during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, citing systemic barriers and risks of wrongful disenfranchisement.
The All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA-NAPM), a nationwide network of feminist organisations and individuals, has written to the Election Commission of India (ECI), urging it to immediately take corrective measures to ensure that no eligible woman or transgender person above the age of 18 is excluded from the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.
In its representation, the alliance acknowledged that the Election Commission has the constitutional responsibility to periodically update and clean electoral rolls.
However, it stressed that the ECI’s primary objective should always be to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of the democratic process.
The organisation expressed serious concern over what it described as a systematic erosion of women’s voting rights during the SIR exercise being conducted since 2025.
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According to the representation, data from the first two phases of the revision in 13 States and Union Territories indicates that around 8.9% fewer living voters were included in the revised electoral rolls. It further claimed that women, transgender persons and members of minority communities, particularly Muslims, were deleted at disproportionately higher rates.
The alliance also pointed out that States such as Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal witnessed a noticeable decline in the gender ratio of voters after the revision.
The representation argued that the present verification process relies heavily on patriarchal concepts of family lineage and household relationships, making it difficult for many women and transgender persons to establish eligibility.
It stated that several vulnerable groups, including Dalit and Adivasi women, homeless women, women living in shelter homes, widows, survivors of domestic violence, single women, women in inter-faith or inter-caste marriages, sex workers, elderly women, persons with disabilities, transgender persons, and those displaced due to floods, conflict or evictions, often struggle to produce the required documents.
The alliance urged the Election Commission to widen the list of acceptable documents and allow alternatives such as marriage invitation cards, children’s birth certificates or school records, particularly for women who have migrated after marriage or transgender persons separated from their natal families.
It also requested that women possessing Aadhaar cards, ration cards or voter identity cards should be allowed to obtain enumeration forms through designated ECI officials even if they lack lineage-related documents.
Special attention was also sought for transgender and gender-diverse persons. The representation highlighted that many transgender individuals continue to face mismatches between their names, gender identity and official documents following gender transition. Since many live away from their families or in chosen communities, obtaining records from their places of origin can be extremely difficult.
The alliance requested the ECI to accept gazette notifications and transgender identity certificates wherever available and to create alternative mechanisms for establishing voter eligibility.
It further urged the Commission to continue recognising the principle of self-determination of gender laid down by the Supreme Court in the 2014 NALSA judgment and reflected in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, especially until rules under the Transgender Amendment Act, 2026 are notified.
The representation also called for an extension of the timeline for completing the Special Intensive Revision. It stated that the short deadlines imposed during the first two phases became a major reason for wrongful exclusions because both Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and voters did not receive adequate time to complete verification and documentation. It recommended proper training, written protocols, travel support, helplines and fair remuneration for BLOs to improve implementation.
The alliance further criticised the ECI’s “logical discrepancy” criteria, arguing that they unfairly target women. It pointed out that many married women traditionally change their names after marriage, but these changes are often not reflected in official documents. Treating such name changes as suspicious, it argued, is arbitrary and discriminatory.
Similarly, the criterion treating a small age gap between a mother and child as suspicious ignores the reality that child marriages and teenage pregnancies have historically been common in several parts of India.
To make the process more inclusive, ALIFA-NAPM proposed the creation of separate gender-friendly help desks for women and transgender persons at every stage of the voter revision process. It also suggested independent and non-partisan assistance centres at Electoral Registration Officer offices, Gram Panchayat offices and other accessible locations to help vulnerable persons complete documentation and resolve verification issues.
The representation further urged the Election Commission to improve transparency by publishing gender-disaggregated data on voter additions, deletions, pending cases, reasons for deletion, objections and appeals. It recommended independent monitoring through surveys, interviews and social audits involving civil society organisations to identify wrongful exclusions and ensure accountability.
Another major recommendation was to provide an effective mechanism for restoring voters whose names are wrongly deleted. The alliance argued that requiring such persons to submit Form 6 is not an adequate solution because it treats them as first-time voters and may force them to make incorrect declarations.
It instead sought a dedicated restoration mechanism, a one-year window for re-admission into electoral rolls and stronger appellate powers for election authorities. It also opposed the proposed tribunal-based system for determining voter eligibility, describing it as procedurally unfair and unconstitutional.
Finally, the organisation requested the Election Commission to issue an official clarification stating that exclusion from the updated voter list under the Special Intensive Revision does not amount to loss of Indian citizenship. According to the representation, such clarification is necessary to remove fear and confusion among citizens because the Supreme Court has limited the Commission’s jurisdiction to electoral roll revision and not determination of citizenship.
The representation has been signed by 50 members of the All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA-NAPM), including advocates, academics, journalists, researchers, social activists and women’s rights campaigners from different parts of the country, who have appealed to the Election Commission to adopt immediate corrective measures so that no eligible woman or transgender person is denied the constitutional right to vote because of procedural or systemic barriers.