SIR in Manipur: How will elections officials verify displaced voters?

HOw do election officials carry on house-to-house verification in derelict ghostwrite settlements where intact communities have fled in the wake of ethnic violence? And how do they upload photographs of voters’ homes when many of those houses have been burnt, bombed or reduced to rubble?These are among the key questions that the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Manipur has raised with the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the context of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in the violence-hit state.Senior government officials, who asked not to be named, said that the Manipur CEO’s office on Friday wrote to ECI asking for a SOP (standard Operating Procedure) on conducting SIR for the state’s internally displaced people (IDPs). There are around 60000 people from both Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities who fled their houses due to the ethnic clashes. Due to the unresolved ethnic violence, the communities still live in the strongholds they have retreated to - - Meitei in the valley districts and Kuki-Zo in the hills. Security forces guard the highways connecting the hills and the valley to ensure that the communities not enter the each other’s districts and indulge in violence.“The enumeration process for all non IDPs across the state is on but for IDPs, it is on hold. We have distributed the forms to the citizens but not for IDPs. The CEO’s office has told us that ECI will send a communication on how it is to be done,” an official involved in SIR in the state said, asking not to be named.The official added that the CEO’s office has until then asked each distinct to nominate special Assistant Electoral Registration Officers(AEROs) to exclusively deal with cases of internally displaced people, many of whom do not have documents left behind or burnt in the violence that started in May 2023.“These special AEROs will help in getting all documents online. People left their documents behind when they had to flee their homes. Getting their documents is an easy task and it is being done. All the record are online. Out of the nearly 60000 people displaced, there are around 18000 voters,” the officer said adding that main issue is verifying that the voters indeed lived at the registered address.But there are other problems facing the enumerators on that front as well.“In the ECI App, the commission has made it mandatory to take a picture of the house and upload it. In Manipur that is not possible because there are ghost colonies in both the valley(colonies where Kuki-Zo people lived before the violence) and hill districts(colonies where Meitei lived). At many places even buildings as tall as 2-3 and 4 storeys were bombed and razed. No building exists at that place,” a second official involved in the process said, asking not to be named.This official added that ongoing Naga-Kuki clashes present another problem.“Though the number of people affected in Kuki-Naga violence is nowhere close to the Meitei-Kuki clashes, there are many ghost villages in such districts too. People have left their homes and are living with their relatives in their stronghold areas. The same problem will arise in this case also.”An ECI official said the SOP will be straightforward.“The booth level officer of the area where these people are living will distribute enumeration forms. The enumeration form itself provides significant built-in relief for displaced voters, particularly those already on the last electoral roll. Voters who can map themselves to a family member already present on the roll after the last SIR are not required to submit any documents at all — they simply fill the enumeration form and mention the details of the elative whose name appears on the existing roll. A displaced voter whose name is already on the roll, or whose parent, spouse, or sibling appears on it, can be enumerated at the camp location without producing a single document,” this person added, asking not to be named.As for the house photograph, the mandatory requirement will be waived.“Only where a voter cannot link themselves to any family member on the existing roll will the AERO seek supporting documents — and even then, ERO has the discretion to condone gaps on a case-by-case basis.”Where documents are required, ECI accepts any of the 12 standard documents — the most commonly used being the existing EPIC card, Aadhaar card, driving licence, Indian passport, bank or post office passbook with photo and current address, pension document with photo, MGNREGA job card, service identity card issued by the state or central government or PSUs, and the Unique Disability ID. Any one of these will suffice.This addresses concerns regarding documentation requirements for voters.“Once camp-level enumeration is complete, each voter makes a single choice: remain on the roll of their original constituency, or apply for transfer to the constituency where they are currently sheltering through Form 6 or Form 8A,” the ECI officer explained..To prevent duplication, all enumeration data collected at camp locations will be shared with BLOs of the voters’ original constituencies for cross-verification, ensuring that no voter appears on two rolls simultaneously and that the original constituency roll is updated to reflect the verified status of its displaced electors.ECI has also allowed claim forms to be submitted online without insisting on physical submission of documents — a precedent that gives Manipur’s special AEROs additional flexibility in processing IDP cases where physical document submission is difficult or impossible.Meanwhile the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights(KOHUR) wrote to the ECI, urging the Commission to issue a clarification on how door-to-door enumeration would be done for IDPs. KOHUR urged the ECI to spell out a displacement specific protocol for enumerating people who have lost their homes, cannot return to their residences and won’t be there when BLOs visit the houses.Citing the fact that 58821 people are living across 174 relief camps, KOHUR said, “The SIR exercise is built around house-to-house enumeration by BLOs who visit each elector’s residence to distribute, collect and verify enumeration forms before the cut off date of June 28, 2026. For a displaced elector whose house has been destroyed, who cannot return to the area of his or her booth, and who is recorded at a relief camp in different district or another state, the ordinary house to house mechanism does not operate as designed. ...The enumeration model that presumes the elector is reachable at his/her ordinary residence carries a real and foreseeable risk of differential deletion.”Manipur has been gripped by ethnic unrest since May 3, 2023, in violence that has claimed more than 260 lives and displaced over 60,000 people.