The SIR Workload Debate: A Look At How BLOs Function Amid Opposition’s Objections

Booth-level officers are in field to distribute enumeration forms to voters as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of election rolls begins in West Bengal. (PTI)

As the deaths of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal trigger a nationwide conversation on stress and accountability within the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, a key question has emerged: how heavy is the SIR workload on paper, and why are BLOs struggling on the ground?

A closer look at the basic structure of the SIR, the mathematics of a booth, and the nature of the 2025 verification drive shows a gap between the official expectations and the practical challenges being reported across multiple states.

What Exactly Is SIR?

The SIR is not a routine annual update but a deep, door-to-door verification of electoral rolls. It requires BLOs to physically visit households, distribute fresh enumeration forms, collect them back, and ensure the revised details are uploaded.

Unlike summary revisions, the SIR also asks voters to provide information that was originally captured during the last SIR conducted in 2002-2004, such as their Legislative Assembly Constituency (LAC) details, booth number and serial number.

With more than two decades having passed, most electors simply do not remember these identifiers, forcing BLOs to spend additional time clarifying or helping fill in missing data. This, according to officers and unions, is one of the core reasons why the current exercise is proving far more demanding than what the pure numbers suggest.

What Is A BLO Assigned Under SIR?

Each BLO is responsible for one booth within an assembly constituency. Their task is straightforward on paper:

• Distribute the enumeration forms to all electors linked to their booth
• Return for a second round to collect the filled forms
• Ensure the details are digitised as required

How Many Voters Fall Under One Booth?

Across India, booth size varies, but political parties commonly estimate that a booth covers around 1,000 voters (typically 800–1,200).

How Many Households Does This Usually Mean?

Parties and field functionaries calculate that these 1,000-odd voters come from roughly 300 households.

What Timeline Has The EC Set?

The Election Commission has allocated 30 days for the entire field exercise. The SIR schedule runs from 4 November to 4 December, giving BLOs a one-month window to cover all households twice.

How Many Visits Does This Entail?

Two rounds per household:

1. One visit to hand over the forms
2. One visit to collect them back

This means a BLO must complete 600 household interactions within the 30-day period.

What Does This Translate To Per Day?

To remain on track, a BLO needs to cover 20 households per day-around 10 for distribution, and around 10 for collection. In many areas — villages, dense urban colonies, small towns — these households are located in close proximity, often along a single street or cluster.

Is Covering 20 Households Daily Excessive?

On paper, this figure does not appear extreme. For comparison, delivery workers for major e-commerce platforms typically cover 30–60 stops a day in similar neighbourhood layouts. This is why some argue that the fieldwork alone should not be overwhelming.

Then Why Are BLOs Reporting Stress And Collapse?

The suicides, protests, strikes and complaints point to pressure points beyond the basic mathematics:

• Voters struggling to recall 2002-era SIR identifiers, requiring extended assistance
• Long review meetings — in some states, allegedly stretching till midnight
• Multiple daily video conferences
• Compressed timelines in certain districts
• Supervisory pressure to improve digitisation numbers
• Additional administrative tasks not reflected in the basic household count
• Simultaneous professional duties, since BLOs are not full-time election staff (teachers, Anganwadi workers, panchayat staff, contract workers, etc.)

Despite the EC reporting that 98.89 per cent of the 51 crore electors across 12 SIR states have received forms, the digitisation stage is at just 20.19 per cent, an imbalance that BLOs say is adding to their burden.

Kerala has currently digitised 3.39 per cent, Uttar Pradesh 6.14 per cent, West Bengal 20.59 per cent, Tamil Nadu 21.99 per cent, and Madhya Pradesh 30.35 per cent, while smaller territories such as Goa (54.08 per cent) and Lakshadweep (46.06 per cent) naturally show quicker turnaround.

These grievances have resulted in strikes, protests, and boycott calls from Kerala to West Bengal to Tamil Nadu. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has gone further, alleging that a process that earlier spanned three years is now being compressed into two months, placing “inhuman pressure” on field staff, a claim the ECI disputes.

The SIR is currently underway in Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. On Monday, the EC also ordered a separate ‘Special Revision’ of Assam’s electoral rolls, ahead of the state’s upcoming polls.