Why SIR verification needs to be completely digitised, Pg9

Key Highlights:

• Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2.0, aimed at cleaning electoral rolls, has caused anxiety among voters due to reliance on error-prone manual processes.
• Eminent citizens, including a Nobel laureate and former officials, were summoned to verify their identity, highlighting flaws in the system.
• Draft rolls revealed alleged deletion of nearly 65 million genuine voters nationwide and a large number of "non-mapped" voters.
• The author suggests a digital-first system using ECINet for online document upload and backend verification to improve accuracy and reduce hardship.

Detailed Insights:

• The Election Commission's (EC) digital platform, ECINet, is underutilized, with SIR 2.0 relying heavily on paper-based processes reminiscent of the flawed 2002-04 SIR.
• "Non-mapped" voters, often missing from legacy lists, face short-notice hearings due to institutional failures, shifting accountability onto citizens.
• Voters accidentally deleted from rolls are forced to use Form 6, meant for first-time applicants, potentially exposing them to legal risks under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
• A digital verification system with online document upload and backend cross-verification can make voter verification faster, fairer, and more humane.
• The author emphasizes that the issue is not a lack of technology but the failure to use it effectively, undermining public trust and electoral integrity.

Key Concepts Involved:

• ECINet: The digital platform of the Election Commission of India used for data management related to elections.
• Special Intensive Revision (SIR): An initiative by the Election Commission to revise and clean electoral rolls.
• Non-mapped voters: Voters not properly recorded or flagged due to defects in previous electoral rolls.