New Delhi, 26 June

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is now part of the NCERT's class 9 Social Science textbook, which describes it as an exercise to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out of the voter list and no ineligible person is included.

The new National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbook also lauds the Election Commission of India (ECI) for conducting impartial polls despite challenges such as fake news, misinformation and intimidation.

The SIR, which has so far led to the deletion of nearly 6 crore names from the electoral rolls and led to acrimony between the opposition parties and the ECI, has completed a year and continues in 19 states and Union territories.

The pilot SIR commenced in Bihar on 24 June last year ahead of the state polls. The result was a pruned voter list, with nearly 65 lakh names dropped amid claims by the opposition and activists that the ECI was working at the BJP's behest to disenfranchise citizens for want of documents.

"The ECI also conducts Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which involves updating, verifying and correcting the electoral rolls. Through SIR, it ensures that no eligible citizen is left out and no ineligible person is included in the electoral roll.

"This exercise ensures the addition of all voters, especially the young voters who have just turned 18 and may be left out due to a lack of awareness or any other reason," reads a section of the textbook titled "Understanding Society: India and Beyond".

It notes that SIR also deletes names based on the death of the voter, change of residence, duplicate enrolment and being permanently untraceable.

"EC gives time to raise claims or objections against the revised electoral roll and settles these claims and objections before publishing the final electoral roll," it said.

The old class 9 textbook, in a chapter on electoral politics, had a section on voter lists, where it mentioned that "a complete revision of the list takes place every five years and this is done to ensure that it remains up to date".

The textbook, revised in line with the new National Curriculum Framework, also highlights the scale of India's electoral process and the ECI's role in conducting elections across the country.

"India's electoral exercise is unparalleled and distinct from those in other parts of the world, with over 96.8 crore eligible voters spread across diverse regions and terrains," the chapter stated.

It further said the ECI manages this vast exercise autonomously and works to ensure elections across the country are conducted in a free and fair manner.

"Despite numerous challenges to conducting free and fair elections, the ECI tries to ensure that elections are carried out impartially at multiple levels," it said.

A dedicated section in the textbook titled "Challenges to free and fair elections" said, "In India, conducting elections for 96.8 crore voters with thousands of polling stations and hundreds of political parties spread across diverse regions and socio-economic realities is a challenging task."