The SIR began in Bengal on November 4. Under the process, a booth-level officer visits a house and presents the voter with a partially filled form where the particulars of the voter have to be filled in, and supported by one of 12 documents approved by the Election Commission of India

For almost two decades, Anoyara Bibi lived in a shanty with her family of five and worked as a ragpicker at Mahishbathan in Salt Lake near Kolkata.

Since November 17, though, Bibi is stationed under a banyan tree, a few metres from the Border Security Force check post at Hakimpur in North 24 Parganas, barely 500 metres from the India-Bangladesh international border.

The 75-year-old is waiting for her turn to cross the border. Because despite her prolonged stay in India, she is a Bangladeshi citizen.

“I am

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