Nomadic communities face difficulty filling enumeration forms during SIR in Karnataka
Nomadic communities in Karnataka's Belagavi district are struggling to register for electoral rolls due to a lack of permanent addresses and official documentation. Election officials are finding it difficult to process their applications as many members lack basic identity proofs like Aadhaar or EPIC cards.
Why it matters
This highlights the systemic barriers to democratic participation and social welfare access faced by marginalized, mobile populations.
Members of some nomadic tribes in Belagavi district are facing difficulties in registering their names in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka. They have been shifting between various towns and villages, and do not have proper documents about their address or where they voted last. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are advising them to go to the districts where they lived in 2002, the last time an SIR was conducted .
BLOs met some members of the Durugmurgi and Abbepari communities in Yaragatti on Bagalkot road. They found that none of them could read or write. “A lot of them do not have any of the documents that could serve as proof of residence. Some have never enrolled as voters. They do not have Elector Picture Identity Cards. Some do not even have Aadhaar cards,” an officer on SIR duty told The Hindu .
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