UP SIR draft roll registers 21.4% decline in women voters | Lucknow News

Lucknow: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Uttar Pradesh‘s electoral rolls, with its draft released on Jan 6, 2026, has brought focus on notable drop in gender ratio, raising concerns about the impact on women’s electoral participation.Prior to the revision, as on Oct 27, 2025, Uttar Pradesh had a gender ratio of 877 women per 1,000 men among registered voters. After the intensive verification and deletions in the SIR process, the figure fell to 824 in the draft list.India’s 2011 Census recorded Uttar Pradesh’s overall population gender ratio at 911 women per 1,000 men — already lower than the national average. In absolute terms, the number of women voters decreased from approximately 7.22 crore to around 5.67 crore, marking a reduction of about 1.54 crore (or 21.4%).Male voters saw a comparatively lower dip of 16.3%, from roughly 8.23 crore to 6.88 crore, resulting in a net decrease of around 1.34 crore.A striking example comes from Sahibabad assembly constituency in Ghaziabad district where the gender ratio plummeted from 779 (pre-SIR in Oct 2025) to an exceptionally low 646 in the Jan 6 draft — a drop of 133 points. “Sahibabad constituency has the lowest gender ratio in the state in SIR draft rolls, highlighting how urban migration, documentation challenges, or verification gaps may have disproportionately affected registration of women in such high-density zones,” an official said. Another key indicator involves women aged 25 years and above whose electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) listed their father’s name rather than husband’s or other details. In July 2025, this category stood at 71.18 lakh. After the SIR, it reduced dramatically to 29.04 lakh — a decrease of 42.14 lakh, or about 59.2%.“This substantial cut suggests that many such entries, possibly from traditional or rural naming conventions, faced stricter scrutiny or lacked sufficient proof during the door-to-door enumeration,” the official added.Urban areas experienced a heavier overall voter deletion rate (28%, from 4.16 crore in Oct 27, 2025, to 2.99 crore on Jan 6, 2026), which likely amplified the gender imbalance in places like Sahibabad, compared to rural areas (15.23% drop, from 11.28 crore to 9.56 crore).According to analysts, SIR aimed to clean the rolls by removing deceased, shifted, duplicated, or untraceable names, but the process appears to have inadvertently — or disproportionately — affected women due to factors like name changes after marriage, reliance on family verification, or lower access to supporting documents.“The drop underscores a widening gap in electoral representation, prompting calls for targeted re-verification efforts, more female booth-level officers, and awareness drives to safeguard women’s voting rights ahead of future elections,” an analyst said.Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa maintained that the draft is not final, with claims and objections window open till Feb 6, 2026, allowing affected voters (including women) to submit proofs for reinstatement. He expressed optimism that the final roll, set for March 6, 2026, would be cleaner while ensuring genuine voters are included.