SIR a bigger hill to climb for electors without parents
Times of India | 11 January 2026
Kolkata: Forty-five years ago, orphan Heera (Amitabh Bachchan in the 1981 blockbuster ‘Laawaris') sang ‘Jiska koi nahin uska to khuda hai yaaron' (Kishore Kumar) to comfort himself that, when he had none in the world, God was his refuge, who saved him at every turn. In 2026, can God save Heera as a voter when SIR became a bigger hill to climb for electors without parents?
With the SIR hearing for logical discrepancies on, many ‘Laawaris' (orphan or abandoned child) like Heera have their voting right as citizens at stake. BLOs attending the hearing for logical discrepancies in presence of micro observers, AEROs or EROs fear that these electors would have their names struck off the final list, which will be released next month.
Tollygunge resident Rekha Sarkhel (38) did not see her father, while she has a faint memory of her mother, who married again, abandoning her when she was 4. "I was given shelter and reared by a distant relative whom I call uncle. I did not marry and stay in his house, who died during the pandemic. During enumeration, the BLO took his documents from me, but I got a hearing notice. Even though I explained my situation to the officials, they told me submission of parental documents was mandatory. I am not responsible for what my parents did to me," she rued.
As per EC norms, those born between 1987 and 2004 must provide a birth certificate along with documents establishing their parents' place of birth. "Aadhaar and Voter ID are not sufficient to prove citizenship; it is mandatory for electors to produce documents proving birth and parental origin. For others born before 1987, no documents are needed if their names are on the 2002 list," said an ERO.
"There are some voters who do not have parents' documents. Some claimed their parents got separated and got married again, abandoning their kids. Initially, the micro observer gave consent that these voters' other kin's documents could be submitted in lieu of their parents' on sympathetic grounds. Now that the hearing is on, EC officials rejected these documents. These voters have been marked in the ‘documents not found' category, and that means their names will be deleted in the final list," said a BLO in Howrah.
According to the BLOs, the Election Commission's software has been set in such a way that no documents other than parents' can be uploaded in the system to rectify voters' logical flaws.