In late 2022, the Election Commission of India (ECI) proposed a Remote EVM (R-EVM) to address issues related to domestic migrant voting. The goal was to improve the 67.4% voter turnout in the 2019 general election. The ECI held an all-party meeting where most political parties raised different kinds of concerns and suggested that there is need for more discussion on this issue.
To gauge public trust in the proposed system, a survey by Lokniti-CSDS was conducted in September 2023, involving 1,017 migrants living in Delhi’s slums, with 63% men and 37% women. The survey aimed to understand whether the proposed R-EVM system would gain the viable level of trust among its intended users, setting aside legal and logistical concerns raised by political parties.
The biggest chunk of migrants in Delhi, almost half, come from the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh followed by Bihar (22%), West Bengal (8%) and Rajasthan (7%). The surveyed migrants stated employment opportunities as the primary reason for relocation (58%). However, the second most cited reason was family-related reasons (18%) followed by relocation due to marriage (13%). Of the people who moved for family reasons or due to marriage, an overwhelmingly high proportion were women.
