Citizens of nowhere: G.B. Road’s sex workers at risk of exclusion in ongoing SIR
Sex workers in Delhi's G.B. Road area face potential exclusion from voter rolls due to the Election Commission's strict documentation requirements for the special intensive revision. Many women lack the necessary records to prove their identity or residency, threatening their ability to vote.
Why it matters
This highlights systemic barriers to political participation for marginalized communities and the impact of bureaucratic processes on human rights.
The ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Delhi has cast an ominous shadow over women sex workers in Garstin Bastion (G.B.) Road brothels. Many of them don’t possess the documents listed by the Election Commission (EC) to verify their details or an extract of the previous SIR with their names or those of a blood relative for mapping, given that they were trafficked to the brothels at an age when they were too young to remember their place of birth.
With the fear of losing their vote has come another fear — that they would be asked to leave. But where? No one can tell. For many who have spent decades on G.B. Road shifting between brothels, the uncertainty over what exclusion from the SIR might mean is growing by the day.
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