Experts warn of falling trust in Election Commission and threat to India’s democratic foundations
NEW DELHI – The latest Lokniti-CSDS survey has raised alarm that the Election Commission’s process of revising electoral rolls is threatening the voting rights of the country’s poor, Muslims and other marginalised groups. The requirement of multiple documents has created fresh barriers, especially for those already struggling with poverty, illiteracy, and social exclusion.
The study, titled “How document deficits may risk disenfranchising the poor, eroding trust in the Election Commission”, published by The Hindu, shows that what appears to be a “reasonable” demand for documents to the middle and upper classes has become a punishment for the marginalised.
“This is not just about documents, this is about dignity,” said Abdul Rahman, a rickshaw puller in Lucknow who fears his family will be left out of the rolls. “We have Aadhaar cards, but they ask for more papers. We are poor. How do we get them?”
The research highlights that while nearly every citizen has Aadhaar, ownership of other identity papers is divided sharply by caste and class. Almost 90 per cent of the general category possess a PAN card, but only just above half of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) hold one.
Passports remain a luxury. Only one in five among the general category has one, while among SCs, the figure drops to 5 per cent and among STs to 4 per cent. Birth certificates are even rarer. Less than half of all communities own one, but the figure for Dalits is just one in four.
Among poor households, the survey found that only one in ten adults could say that he has a birth certificate. Nearly half of the rich own passports, but among the poor, the figure is only one in 20.
“This is not a level playing field,” explained survey coordinator Sanjay Kumar. “The poor, Dalits, tribals, and Muslims lack access to these documents not because they do not want them, but because the system has failed them.”
The study noted that Indian Muslims, already struggling with discrimination in housing, jobs and education, are among the hardest hit. Many live in informal settlements where proof of residence is difficult to provide.
Shabana Begum, a widow from Delhi’s Seelampur area, said: “We shifted after the riots. Our house burnt down. We lost everything, including papers. Now the officials say we cannot vote without documents. Are we not Indian?”
Activists argue that the deliberate tightening of rules is a way to weaken the political voice of Muslims and other minorities. “This is a silent form of disenfranchisement,” said Mohammed Saleem, a community worker in Uttar Pradesh. “They cannot openly say Muslims should not vote, so they make documents compulsory knowing poor Muslims do not have them.”
The data also reveals huge differences between states. In Madhya Pradesh, 61 per cent reported lacking at least one required document. In Uttar Pradesh, it was 58 per cent, and in West Bengal 51 per cent. But in Kerala, only 18 per cent reported missing documents.
Observers point out that the worst-affected states are those with large Muslim and Dalit populations, already targeted by polarised political campaigns. “This pattern is no accident,” said Prof Zoya Hasan, a political scientist. “Where minorities are strong, the pressure to restrict them is also strong.”
The survey found that almost half (45 per cent) of respondents fear that names of genuine voters will be wrongly deleted during the verification process. Only a quarter believe that such wrongful exclusion will not happen.
Among vulnerable groups, the illiterate (42 per cent), the elderly (41 per cent), the poor (39 per cent) and rural residents (32 per cent) are most likely to suffer.
“This is a way to make the poor feel like outsiders in their own land,” said Nasir Khan, a farmer from Bareilly. “My father is 80, he never went to school, he has no papers. Will they say he is not Indian now?”
Perhaps most worrying is the steep fall in trust in the Election Commission. Only a quarter of citizens now say they are “very confident” that all eligible voters will be included in the list. One in six are “not very confident” and one in ten are “not at all confident”.
In Uttar Pradesh, 56 per cent respondents expressed strong faith in the Commission in 2019. That number has fallen to just 31 per cent in 2025. In West Bengal, trust has collapsed from 68 per cent to 41. Assam, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh show similar declines.
“The credibility of the Election Commission is the bedrock of democracy,” said writer Saba Naqvi. “If citizens lose faith, the entire democratic process is weakened. Asking why trust has declined is not disloyalty. It is accountability,” she said.
Political activist Yogendra Yadav directly blamed the leadership of the Commission. “Now you know why there is a severe decline in public trust,” he said.
NCP spokesperson Anish Gwande called the findings “worrying” and said: “When people lose faith in the Election Commission, one of India’s most trusted institutions, the future of democracy is in danger.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has already accused the Commission of helping the ruling party by manipulating voter lists and committing “vote theft.” The survey appears to strengthen his charge.
The Lokniti-CSDS report concludes that by forcing citizens to prove their own legitimacy, the state is shifting responsibility away from itself. Instead of making documents easily accessible, the poor are punished for lacking them.
The result, experts warn, is not only exclusion from voting but also the branding of the poor and Muslims as “suspicious citizens.”
“Voting is the right of every Indian,” said Abdul Rahman in Lucknow. “If they take that away from the poor, from Muslims, then what democracy are we talking about?”
