New Delhi, Oct. 3 -- Bihar's electoral rolls have contracted sharply in 2025. Between January 1, when the special summary revision (SSR) rolls data was published, and September 30, when the final list under the special intensive revision (SIR) was issued, the state lost over 3.8 million voters. The rolls stood at 78 million at the start of the year, and have now dropped to 74.1 million. The change is not evenly distributed across gender. Male voters fell from 40.7 million in January to 39.2 million in September, a 3.8% reduction. Female voters fell from 37.2 million to 34.9 million in the same period, a sharper 6.1% decline. In absolute terms, men declined by 1.55 million, while women fell by 2.27 million. This imbalance means nearly six out of every 10 names deleted during the SIR process were women. In the state's larger districts, the same trend is visible when measured between the January rolls and the September final list. Muzaffarpur, for instance, fell from 3.41 million voters in January to 3.29 million in September, a net drop of over 122,000. In this case, men's numbers declined by 3.4%, while women dropped by 3.9%. In Madhubani, the rolls shrank from 3.33 million to 3.1 million, a fall of 227,000. Here the burden fell more on women, who declined by 8.2%, compared to 5.5% among men. Patna, the largest district in terms of electorate, dropped from 5 million to 4.81 million in the same period, with 3.5% reduction for men and 4.1% for women. Samastipur also displayed the gap: its rolls contracted from 3.08 million in January to 2.92 million by September, with women down by 6.7% and men by 3.8%. In some districts, the imbalance is more severe. Gopalganj shrank from 2.03 million to 1.8 million voters, a cut of 11.3%. Here women's numbers fell by nearly 15%, while men dropped by only 7.8%. Kishanganj lost over 10,000 voters, with women declining by 11.9% and men by 5.5%. Supaul's rolls contracted from 1.62 million to 1.53 million, with women's deletions at 7% and men's 3.6%. EC officials, requesting anonymity, attributed part of this skew to "social and cross-border factors." An official told HT, "In northern Bihar's border districts, many women from Nepal marry into Indian families but don't surrender their Nepali citizenship. Without full documentation, these women are more likely to have their names struck off during verification." Officials also noted that families often show less urgency in registering women, particularly those who have married into households....