25,000 Bengaluru sex workers face voter roll exclusion over document rules

Around 25,000 sex workers in Bengaluru face potential disenfranchisement and exclusion from electoral rolls due to strict documentation and progeny mapping challenges during the ongoing voter enumeration process, according to details highlighted on July 16, 2026. The state's system of voter enumeration, known as the SIR process, has created severe barriers for marginalized communities who lack ancestral records.

The issue extends across Karnataka, where an estimated 80 percent of the state's two lakh sex workers have been unable to produce the required documents dating back to 2002. This documentation gap threatens to strip thousands of vulnerable individuals of their voting rights.

Under the current SIR process, voter enumeration requires progeny mapping, a system that links individuals to their parents or grandparents on the 2002 voter list. For many sex workers who left their homes decades ago and severed ties with their families, tracing and proving these familial connections is impossible.

In addition to progeny mapping, name discrepancies present a major hurdle. Sex workers frequently use different names in their official documents and voter IDs compared to their birth names, complicating the verification process conducted by state enumeration authorities.

Activists have criticized the policy, arguing that the enumeration guidelines were designed without considering the realities of marginalized communities. By requiring decades-old ancestral proof, the system disproportionately penalizes those who have been estranged from their families or displaced.

The impact of these strict documentation rules also extends to former devadasi women and their children. Across Karnataka, an estimated four to five lakh people from former devadasi families are potentially affected by these enumeration hurdles, facing similar difficulties in proving parentage and retrieving historical records.

Without policy interventions or alternative verification methods, activists fear that a vast majority of these marginalized groups will remain entirely excluded from the democratic process. The ongoing struggles highlight a growing gap between administrative requirements and the lived experiences of vulnerable populations in the state.