Is one month enough for Special Intensive Revision? No SIR, say BLOs

The suicide of booth level officer (BLO) Aneesh George in Kannur, allegedly triggered by overwork and impossible deadlines, has once again thrown up the question that has largely been ignored by the Election Commission of India: Is there a needless haste in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala?

BLOs Onmanorama talked to said the one-month period (November 4 to December 4) to hand over the SIR forms to voters and collect the filled ones back was beyond their capability. Outraged by George's death, BLOs across Kerala have boycotted SIR duties on Monday.

Even at this nearly half-way stage, most have not even completed the distribution of enumeration forms. Collecting them back will take more time as in most cases the voters would require the assistance of BLOs to fill them. So if distribution requires on an average 10 minutes at a house, collection could take even up to a hour in each house.   

Orphan forms
Even if the distribution is completed in the next two or three days, the BLOs will still be left with 80-100 unclaimed forms each. "These forms belong to voters who had vanished from the area. They would have left the place long ago but had failed to update their addresses. We cannot even contact them as no one in the area knows where these people are," said Shilpa, a BLO, an office attendant, in Kochi.

The enumeration forms are being distributed to all the 2.78 crore voters who have their names in the latest 2025 electoral roll with the Election Commission of India.

Family disputes
Distribution is not as simple and straightforward as taking the enumeration forms to the addresses given in the ECI voters' list.

"When we reach a house, there would be just the parents. Their son and daughter, eligible voters, would have moved out. Now we will have to find them in the electoral roll. If the parents, for instance, are 4 and 5 in the list, their children, because they had enrolled only recently, could be 800 or 900. So we have to go through the entire roll in the BLO app to find the children. At times, if the names we are searching for can be spelled differently, like say Ravindran (Raveendran) or Shashi (Sashi), it can be tricky. The search can prolong indefinitely," said BLO Sreelatha, a confidential assistant in Kollam district.

More infuriating would be the refusal of a family to accept the enumeration forms of kin, even of sons and daughters, who had stayed with them earlier. "I came across a family that said that they would not accept the forms of the son, daughter-in-law and grandson as they are not on talking terms with them. They did not even tell us where they lived now. Either they did not know or it was deliberate," said BLO Usha Rani, an anganwadi worker in Nattika, Thrissur.

Voter apathy
Then there are the anticipated speed breakers. "Many a time there would be no one at home. Everyone would have gone for work. If we reach the house early, say by 7 or 8 in the morning, the family would be irritated as they would be busy getting ready to leave for work or readying their kids for school. So we prefer evenings but then we can visit only a limited number of houses," said BLO Anne P, a livestock inspector in Muvattupuzha.

A BLO has been told to visit a house thrice. "There are at least seven houses in my booth that I could not enter even after three visits. I had called some of them and they said they would pick up the forms from me. They have still not done it," said BLO Abhilash, a librarian in Thiruvananthapuram's Vattiyoorkavu.

Each BLO has on an average 900-1000 forms to distribute among 500-600 houses; there are booths where the BLOs are required to hand over 1500 forms. 

Pressure tactics
The delay is piling on the stress. "Every day the village officer calls and inquires about the progress. The deadline for distribution was November 14. I don't know how many achieved this," said Rahul, a government school clerk based in Palakkad.

Office attendant Shilpa, the BLO in a booth in Kochi, nearly had a break down when she was informed of the deadline. "My training was on 11th and I began field work on 12th. On that day I was told I had to complete the distribution on November 14. How am I supposed to do it," she said.

SIR vs local body polls
Shilpa started late because of a communication glitch at the top. Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala, Rathan Kelkar's first list of BLOs had the State Election Commissioner, A Shajahan, fuming. The list had employees from the Local Self Government Department, nearly 30 per cent of the total BLOs. Shajahan said the LSG employees were exclusively for the conduct of the 2025 local body polls and wanted them back.

So, at least a week after the SIR began, Kelkar had to find a large contingent of replacements. Shilpa was one of them.

Local body polls have affected the SIR in other ways, too. "We could have easily identified the houses if we had the help of the booth-level agents (BLAs) of political parties. Now with the local body campaign in full swing, they refuse to come with us to the houses," said BLO Rahul. Most of the BLOs Onmanorama talked to identified the non-cooperation of the BLAs as a major handicap.

After the distribution of forms comes the complicated task of collecting them back. "We are sure that most would not have even attempted to fill these forms. I already had a number of calls asking for help," said Suji V, an Asha worker based in Thiruvannathapuram.

Difficult search
The A4-sized enumeration form has three parts. The first one is mandatory for all, and it is simple. The only things to be filled are: date of birth, Aadhar number (optional), mobile number, father's name, father's Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number (if available), mother's name, mother’s EPIC number (if available), partner's name (if relevant), and partner's EPIC number (if available).

The other two are related to the SIR 2002 list, and filling it can be complicated. The first one on the left, and right below the mandatory part, is for the voter to provide details of her presence in the SIR list drawn up in 2002.

To search for one's name in the SIR 2002 list, there is a voter search option in the CEO Kerala site. Problem is, there are two columns that can prove puzzling for the voter: 'booth name' and 'part serial number'.

"Forget 'part serial number', many voters, especially old people, will have difficulty remembering the booth they had gone to vote nearly 25 years ago. So we know that most voters are waiting for us to return to their houses to fill up the forms," Kavitha Thankappan, a Balussery-based anganwadi worker, said.   

The third part is to be filled by those who do not have their names in the 2002 SIR. A voter born after 2002 will not have his/her name in the SIR 2002 list. However, there could also be voters, even those who had voted in the last Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, who do not have their names in the 2002 SIR list.

"In the third column they will have to fill the SIR 2002 details of their blood relatives -- father or mother or grandfather or grandmother. If voters find it hard to find their own names in the 2002 SIR, just imagine how difficult it would be to find details of their parents or grandparents in the 2002 list," Rahul said. "A good enough reason for them to wait for our help. Those who think we can complete all of this in one month should be truly crazy," he said.