–Pratayksh Mishra
New Delhi | Democracy is ultimately judged by the extent to which all social groups, particularly historically marginalised communities, are included on equal terms. Women’s participation serves as a critical benchmark of this inclusion. The second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has undermined this benchmark most significantly in Uttar Pradesh.
Post-SIR, the gender ratio in Uttar Pradesh’s draft voter list, defined as the number of women per 1,000 men, has fallen by 54 points to just 822. Put simply, had the pre-SIR gender ratio remained unchanged, the draft list would have included nearly 37 lakh more women. This represents a historic decline.
Let me explain: an ideal voter list is one that includes every eligible adult voter. According to the National Population Commission’s ‘Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections, 2020’, Uttar Pradesh’s adult population is projected to have around 941 women for every 1,000 men by the end of 2025. Logically, the draft voter list should mirror this reality. Yet, in practice, the gender ratio in the voter list has always fallen short of this mark.
Although earlier efforts may not have been enough, but the direction was right. The voter list was slowly becoming more inclusive. Before SIR started, on October 27, 2025, the gender ratio of Uttar Pradesh’s voter list was 876. SIR completely reversed this progress.
Before SIR, there were 7.21 crore women voters and 8.23 crore men voters. During SIR, 1.34 crore men were removed, but even more alarming, 1.55 crore women were deleted. As a result, the draft voter list now has only 5.67 crore women voters.
Taking the old voter list of 15.44 crore as the baseline, women’s names were removed during the SIR at a rate nearly 15% higher than men’s – that is, around 20 lakh additional women voters were excluded compared to men.
Had the pre-SIR gender ratio of 876 been maintained, the draft list should have included approximately 6.04 crore women. Instead, the draft list records about 37 lakh fewer women, even though the expectation was that SIR would improve the voter list, bringing the gender ratio closer to that of the adult population – around 941.
Applying this adult population gender ratio to the 12.55 crore voters in the post-SIR draft list, the number of women voters should have been roughly 6.49 crore. In reality, the draft list shows about 82 lakh fewer women.
Similarly, if we apply the ideal gender ratio of 941 to the old voter list of 15.44 crore voters, an ideal list would have included about 7.49 crore women. Compared to this benchmark, the current draft list, with 5.67 crore women, falls short by approximately 1.82 crore women voters.
Explaining the decline by claiming that ‘women move away from home’ is factually incorrect. The 2020 Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections, which calculates the adult gender ratio at 941, accounts for all internal migrations.
This raises the question: where and why were 37 lakh women removed from the draft voter list after SIR? The process itself shifts the full burden onto voters, requiring complex documentation that leads to automatic exclusion.
Married women face an uneven burden in mapping, needing to locate their parents’ or husbands’ names in the 2002 voter list. Consequently, the gender ratio—which had been steadily improving—has regressed sharply, making Uttar Pradesh’s voter list the worst in the country in terms of gender balance.
Before SIR, the picture was completely different. Data from the Election Commission of India and the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission showed steady improvement in gender ratio. Women’s participation was rising, making democracy more inclusive.
In 2012, during the SSR, UP’s voter list had a gender ratio of around 816. By contrast, the 2011 Census showed the adult population’s gender ratio at 912. This clearly highlighted the gap between women in society and those on the voter list. Over the years, efforts were made to close this gap. Special focus was given to adding women voters during revisions, and the improvements started showing slowly but surely.
The SSR revision carried out just before the assembly elections in February 2017 showed a notable increase in female voter turnout. Consequently, the gender ratio in Uttar Pradesh’s voter list improved from 827 to 839, reflecting a 12-point increase in inclusion.
During the 2021-22 SSR drive by the Election Commission, UP’s voter list reached around 15.02 crore voters. About 23.92 lakh men and 28.86 lakh women were added, meaning roughly 5 lakh more women than men joined the list. The gender ratio increased by 11 points, from 857 to 868, which the Election Commission hailed as a noteworthy accomplishment.
January 2025 SSR was another crucial step. The gender ratio went up from 874 to 876. A small 2-point increase, but it showed that adding women voters was steadily moving in the right direction.
This progress was not confined to the Central Election Commission’s voter lists. The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission, a constitutional body like its central counterpart, is responsible for voter lists in Panchayat and Urban Local Body elections.
Data from the State Election Commission corroborates this trend: the Panchayat election voter list in 2015 showed a gender ratio of approximately 879, while the Urban Local Body election list in 2017 was around 869. Taken together, these local election data suggest that the voter list at the time had achieved a gender ratio of roughly 878.
This trend continued to strengthen over time. In the Panchayat elections of 2021, the voter list recorded a gender ratio of approximately 887. In the Urban Local Body elections of 2023, the gender ratio was 881. Combining the data from both local elections, the voter list for local body elections in Uttar Pradesh reached an approximate gender ratio of 886.
This had raised hopes that in the coming years, the voter list would more accurately reflect the actual composition of society. However, the SIR process has reversed decades of progress. Today, the situation in Uttar Pradesh appears to be exactly the opposite.
The SIR conducted in Bihar had already warned about this. There, the gender ratio in the voter list deteriorated rapidly after SIR, sending a clear signal that the process was removing women from the voter list on a large scale.
Today, the same warning signs are clearly visible in the 12 states included in the second phase of SIR, where the voter list gender ratio is moving further away from the total adult female population. This decline in gender ratio is not only historic, but it also appears as though the voter list’s gender ratio has returned to levels seen in the early days of democracy.
(Pratayksh Mishra is a public policy researcher focusing on democracy, electoral processes, and the social impact of public policies.)
