"Nowadays for a homeless person to fulfil the requirement of a place of residence, ‘The BLO [Booth Level Officer] will visit the address given … at night to ascertain that the homeless person actually sleeps at the place which is given as his address … If the BLO is able to verify that the homeless person actually sleeps at that place, no documentary proof of place of residence shall be necessary.’ (Hand Book for Booth Level Officers, Election Commission of India 2011)”.

"The 25 September 1948 press note covered in detail ‘Refugees Rights as Electors’, and the instructions for their inclusion on the electoral rolls. The press continued to bring stories from across the country under the occasional title: ‘Progress In Preparation of Electoral Rolls’. It reported that the East Punjab Government extended the final date for the completion of electoral rolls to 31 October 1948 ‘since a large number had not got themselves registered”.

These passages are taken from the book 'How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise’ by Ornit Shani. The point is to show how, for decades, the focus of the Indian state has been on inclusion when it has come to voters and their rights. Here is another instruction from the government: "Persons sleeping in a pedhi or shop or servants sleeping in the loft of a hotel will be entitled to........

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