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Paper trails, lost salaries: Stories of struggle, success in Bihar SIR drive

HT attempts to sketch the contours of the SIR exercise, shaped by identities, differing access to government services, migration and socioeconomic status.

Published on: Aug 21, 2025, 06:34:14 IST

By Dhrubo Jyoti, Anirban Guha Roy, Aditya Nath Jha

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The first phase of the controversial special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar excised 6.56 million names from the state’s voter rolls. The exclusions have generated a political firestorm and reverberated in Parliament and the Supreme Court. But another key facet are the 72.4 million people who managed to fill their forms. Across five districts, HT attempts to sketch the contours of the exercise, shaped by identities, differing access to government services, migration and socioeconomic status.

A painter paints a wall to create awareness among voters ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections 2025 at the state election department premises. (ANI)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

...Read MoreDhrubo Jyoti is Deputy Executive Editor at Hindustan Times, where they help oversee the newspaper’s daily news and opinion coverage. They are part of the leadership team of the newspaper and their daily responsibilities include news selection, commissioning and editing, apart from planning and executing special projects. Apart from this, they write on national affairs at the intersection of caste and sexuality, with a focus on elections, politics and the lifeworlds of the caste marginalised. Formally trained in physics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Bose Institute, Kolkata, they made a switch to studying journalism from the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Over the past decade at Hindustan Times, they have worked at the National Desk, Page 1 team, Integrated Copy Desk and Special Stories Team, before running the opinion page as views editor for two years, and then moving back as Senior Editor of News Operations. In the past 12 years, they have reported on numerous national and state elections, specialising on caste-informed coverage of major moments in India’s history, and focussing on leading investigations into government accountability and social inequities. Their narrative non-fiction work aims to put Dalit voices at the core of India’s LGBTQIA+ movements. Read Less

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anirban Guha Roy

...Read MoreA journalist for 21 years, Anirban covers RJD, legislature and government beats. Has extensive experience in covering elections and writes regularly on finance, land reforms, registration, excise and socio-economic issues. Read Less

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