In a democracy of 1.4 billion, it depends on each vote. But for millions of Bihar migrants, democracy quietly leaves them behind. The silent crisis is developing, where special intensive revisions (Sir) of state election roles and in a short time led to a mass deletion of almost 3.5 million migrants (4.4% of total voters). These are migrants who were marked as “permanently migrated” for missing during the verification in the house. These voters now face permanent disgrace not only in their jobs, but also at home.
In a state where migration is not only an economic choice, but also a survival strategy, this extensive administrative measure is threatened to delete millions of an Indian democratic record. For decades, migration has maintained the Bihar economy and its household. Locked houses, especially among the poor and the most vulnerable migrants, are a common view across villages. Migrants are increasingly migrating with their families or moving their families to marital homes for their care and security. Yet this reality of migration of circular and family migration is now read by the state as abandonment of voting rights.
The problem is a “sedentary citizen”
The deeper problem lies in the Indian election infrastructure, which is still designed around a sedentary citizen. The registration of voters is bound to proof of residence and personal verification. But for migrant workers – many of them live in rented rooms, on construction sites, on the roads or slums – such documentation is not either unavailable or rejected.
This exclusion is deepened in the context of regionalism and sub-nationalism, where migrants are often considered employment or political threats. Increasing requirements for work quotas in private sectors and strict standards based on government jobs reflect larger political feelings that limit the political integration of migrants. In the host states, migrants are considered to be outsiders and concerns about the changed election results of resistance to their enfranchisement. It discourages voters registration in destinations. As a result, migrants remain stuck: they cannot register in target states and now removed from their original roles.
Detection
The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, a Bombai study in November 2015, financed by the Indian Election Commission called “Inclusive Volletions in India: Studies on domestic migration and problems in election election”, confirmed marginalization of migrants in the host state electoral processes. The study identifies three times the burden – administrative barriers, digital illiteracy and social exclusion – prevents the migrator from effective participation in election processes. It is important that the study found that lower turnout was directly correlated with a higher degree of migration in source states. And yet, rather than bridging this gap in participation, Bihar’s Sir extends the democratic deficit.
This is not just a bureaucratic failure. It’s a democratic rupture. The average rate of participation in the last four Bihar elections was only 53.2%, the lowest of the main Indian states. On the other hand, Gujarat and Karnataka – states with fewer outgoing migrants – have reported on average 66.4% and 70.7% in the last four elections.
Our own estimates based on the data register of the locality of the mobile visitor are indicated by an annual outflow of approximately seven million circular migrants from Bihar. From this issue, 4.8 million is migrated seasonally from June to September. Half of them (2.7 million), however, during the festivals of Durg Puja, CHHhat and Deepavali returned home from October to November. This year, when the elections will occur at the assembly, many of the return migrants will not be able to vote because their names were hit. Without coordination with target states to verify or re -establish these voters, the erase process becomes a de facto release of poor migrants.
The limited absorption of the “One Nation One One GRATE CARD” scheme in the last six years since its introduction in 2019 (national portability of ration holders under the National Food Security Act of 2013) underlines the restrictions of migrants in the host states. Most bihar migrants available in their home state, with only 3.3 lakh households using portability in the target states of 2025. Dual stay, fear of loss of authorization and bureaucratic obstacles discourage transfers. The same logic applies to voters ID-they are maintained by documents based on origin, not because they are indifferent to civil duties, but because they lack security and adoption in the host states.
This dual belonging – economic participation in host states, political identity in domestic states – is now demonized by the state. Migrants are honestly told that “if you are not at home when we knock, your right to vote will disappear”.
Along the 1,751 kilometers long open boundary of India-Nepal, this problem becomes even more complicated. The region has long been celebrating “Roti-Beti Ka Rishta”, the tradition of cross-border economic and marital ties. Many Nepalese and Indian women migrate after marriage, but new standards of documentation and restrictive interpretations of citizenship now threaten their legal and election positions. Here is not only regional or class, but also gender and xenophobic.
Election Deleings After Sir in Bihar: There will be many problematic questions
Time for a portable identity system
The way forward is clear. India must move towards portable, flexible and mobile voter systems. The Indian Election Commission must stop the deletion of migrants and accept the cross -verification model with the roles of the target state voters. Civil society and local administration bodies, such as Panchayats, should be authorized to carry out discs of migrating and registration.
It is high time for the kerala model of migration surveys to be replicated among states with high internal migration, such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. If these steps are not taken, India risks scripting the greatest cleaning of the quiet voter in India after independence-pure no enemies, but hard-working poor who leave home only in search of bread, dignity and work.
S. Irudaya Rajan is a chairman, the International Institute of Migration and Development, Kerala. Arif Nizam is an independent migration researcher based in Bihar
Published – August 21, 2025 12:08
