Cochin Diocese’s post-SIR campaign seeks to ensure nobody loses right to vote

The Cochin Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church has launched a campaign to ensure that no eligible member of the community is deprived of voting rights.

The diocese, comprising 40,750 families spread over four Assembly constituencies in two districts, has launched the drive to identify those who remain out of the electoral rolls even after the recently concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ list.

The Church has apparently taken a cue from help desks organised by community groups, especially Muslim Mahallu committees, during the SIR process.

As part of the drive, volunteers, mostly members of youth forums of the Church who have been trained in voter enrolment procedures, will visit households in family units of the diocese. They will identify those who have been left out of the latest rolls as well as those who require to be enrolled afresh. At least 3,000 such people have already been identified during the drive, the Church leaders involved in the campaign said.

The drive commenced last Sunday (March with door-to-door visits in the St. Joseph’s parish of Cheriyakadavu comprising 875 families.

“We thought of the need for such a campaign following reports that a large number of voters could be omitted from fresh rolls following SIR. The basic principle behind the campaign is that all eligible people should take part in the voting exercise in a democracy,” Xavier Julappan, former president of the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement, Kochi Diocese, said.

Mr. Julappan said the drive focusses on identifying people without a voter ID, those who did not receive enumeration forms, and those who failed to return the forms during the SIR process, people who were not enrolled in the pre-SIR list, and teenagers who have just attained the age for voting.

Apart from the door-to-door campaign, the diocese will also set up help desks to assist people to enrol in the voter rolls. “People from all communities will be served at the help desks,” he said.

Fr. Benny Thoppiparambil, one of the coordinators of the drive, said the Church did not view the campaign as an election-oriented exercise. “There seems to be some amount of illiteracy among the community when it comes to such matters. The drive also aims to address that gap. It will be an ongoing process,” he said, adding that leaders from other dioceses had started exploring the possibility of extending the drive to their regions.

Mr. Julappan said the help desks organised by Mahallu committees during the SIR phase turned out to be a model for them. Pareekutty A.M. of the Edappally Mahallu Muslim Jama-ath committee said the helpdesk that it set up, one of the earliest during the SIR, had turned out to be highly effective. He added the committee had not found the need to launch a post-SIR campaign.

Ziyad Chembarakki, State organising secretary of Samastha Kerala Madrasa Management Association, said community leaders had been advising people during gatherings to check the fresh voter rolls and ensure that no eligible person was disenfranchised.