What did the Election Commission discover when preparing the electoral rolls for conducting the first general elections in India?

The names of women were not recorded properly.

After the adoption of the Constitution on 26 November 1949 and its subsequent signing on 24 January 1950, India was poised to establish its first democratically elected government. Initially, it was believed that this process would only take a few months. In January 1950, the Election Commission of India was established, with Sukumar Sen appointed as the first Chief Election Commissioner. The country eagerly anticipated its first general elections, which were expected to take place in 1950.

However, the Election Commission soon realized that conducting a free and fair election in a country as vast as India would pose significant challenges. Delimitation, the process of drawing electoral constituency boundaries, and preparing accurate electoral rolls, the list of eligible voters, proved to be time-consuming tasks. Upon publishing the first draft of the rolls, it became evident that the names of nearly 40 lakh women were not properly recorded. They were simply listed as "wife of..." or "daughter of...". In response, the Election Commission refused to accept these entries and ordered revisions and necessary deletions.