Report by a first-time voter
Aishwarya
Siingh
BAJMC Sem 2
(The author visited the SIR booth at Gandhinagar Kukra, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, in November 2025)
Read on to know the challenges the officials face in the process
· VENUE: SIR BOOTH, Gandhinagar Kukra,
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, November 25, 2025
During the Special
Intensive Revision, the author got the opportunity to visit the SIR Booth and
speak to the government representatives present there and involved in the
process of SIR.
Siingh spoke to,
Prashant Kaushik: Supervisor
Being
the supervisor of the SIR booth, what are the main problems which you are
facing almost every day and what are the hurdles or inefficiencies of the
administration in the process?
"The
challenges I am facing as a BLO (Booth Level Officer) are that people have been
given very little time to conduct this, and completing it by December 4th is
nearly impossible. The government has not promoted the SIR properly. No
specific bulletin has been issued, so there is a lot of confusion among the
people, and they don't understand how to go about doing this. There is a great
deal of pressure on every single BLO; going to people's homes and asking them
to do this—people are not responding properly. Not everyone is aware or
informed enough to carry this out.
There is a lot of
confusion in people's minds regarding the SIR; they do not know what this thing
is. There is a heavy dependency on BLOs because people who are scared want to
sit with the BLO and write every single line by asking them. Even educated people,
who actually know stuff, are doing the work in this same manner. Additionally,
some people are very reluctant regarding this process and are not taking the
Voter ID seriously. They have an attitude of, 'if it happens, it happens; if it
doesn't, it doesn't'.
And those who feel
that they will not be able to prove that matter properly, or that they do not
have proper documentation as such, are trying to avoid this. It's not that they
are wrong; it's just that they are worried about whether their form will be submitted
properly, whether it will be possible or not, and whether their documentation
will be accepted or not. Out of this fear, they are not engaging with this
process correctly. Even when going house-to-house to conduct the survey, people
are slamming doors in their faces and behaving rudely. There is pressure on the
BLOs to conduct a very high number of surveys in a very short amount of time,
which is almost impossible.
And the biggest
query I have encountered as a BLO among the people is this: people feel that if
they cannot properly prove that they fall under the Election Commission and
that their name is on the list, they will be sent away from here—they will be
sent to Bangladesh or Pakistan.
There have been
issues due to the little to no use of technology right from the district level.
The mechanisms are faltering, as each BLO is being assigned 1,100 to 1,200
forms that are supposed to be filled online. However, the system glitches
frequently, and the average time to fill a form is around 12 minutes. The
filtration process could have been conducted much more efficiently if the 2003
voter list, which was also recorded in the Vidhan Sabha, had been used. If
during the ongoing filtration, additional categories such as father's name,
mother's name, and date of birth had been incorporated into each column, the
process would have become significantly easier. Following this system, nearly
40% of the voters could have been filtered out, leaving only about 16% pending.
Moreover, the selection of BLOs was not very prudent. Many BLOs are elderly and
face difficulties with technology, which in turn is slowing down the entire
process."
Ajay Kumar: Record Officer / Patwari
What
are the common challenges you are facing in this process of SIR?
"In the old
booths, there were only two to three booths, so it was easier for people to
find their names in the list. For example, in the Kakra region, there were 10
booths earlier, and now there are 13. So, among 13,000 people or 10,000 people,
it is becoming difficult for individuals to find their names. People are facing
the most trouble regarding this specific issue; this is the primary difficulty
they are encountering. There are many women and other people who are illiterate
and have no idea what is happening; they simply don't understand the process.
Because of this, a door-to-door campaign is being conducted in the villages.
While it is easy to perform verifications in well-planned colonies where houses
are numbered (like House No. 1, 2, 3, 4), it is becoming extremely difficult to
carry out this work in unplanned colonies."
Q.
There is a common fear that what will happen if people are not able to prove
their name in the list, not to mention people are scared they might lose their
citizenship?
"This is
Phase 1 currently. If you cannot prove your status in Phase 1, your phone
number and address are being recorded. You will then be given another
opportunity in Phase 2 to establish your citizenship. During that second phase,
specific documents will be requested to prove you belong here. Your citizenship
would only be subject to cancellation if you fail to provide those documents—at
least, that is what the government is currently planning."
Archana Singh: BLO
What
was the role of a BLO in the SIR? And what all work was there? And what was the
SIR?
"In this SIR
process, the BLO is the only official who has direct contact with the voter. Or
you could say, only the BLO remains in direct contact with the voter. The
responsibility for getting the voter to fill out the form was given to the BLO.
The responsibility of collecting the forms from the voters and putting them
online was also with the BLO. This means the BLO is the smallest unit of this
entire process. In the SIR process, the BLO was given 'Ganna Prapatras'
(enumeration forms). The responsibility to deliver these to the voters, collect
the completed forms, and upload them online was given to the BLO. All of these
responsibilities rested solely with the BLO. The responsibility of delivering
notices and collecting documents from voters whose names are not in the 2003
voter list—meaning 'no mapping' voters—has also been given to the BLO.
In the SIR
process, the Election Commission of India checks the eligibility of citizens.
The aim is to ensure that no foreign or invalid voter is enrolled in the voter
list. In a way, this is a screening process. Through this process, voters who
have left one place for another, deceased voters, and those enrolled in more
than one location are screened out. This results in the preparation of a clean
voter list. At the same time, new voters who are 18+ can also enroll themselves
in the voter list, leading to the creation of a new, updated list."
What
were the challenges you faced as a BLO during the process of SIR?
"The time
limit was very short and the workload was very high. Voters were also very
scattered, and house numbers were not clear. There were voters who had come and
settled from outside, due to which they were very confused about providing
their 2003 list—regarding which place they had voted in 2003 and which voter
list their name was on. Many voters were very confused and quite scared even
when their names were found in the 2003 list. Voters from the same family were
on the lists of three different BLOs. Along with this, those voters with double
enrollments verified their names in one place. However, the BLO from the other
location kept searching for them because the voter was now unconcerned since
they had verified their name. But the BLO could not find the voter, which
caused them stress.
Along with this, a
cause of stress for the BLO was that they were assigned 20 hours of work daily.
Besides this, the BLO's own family responsibilities were suffering. Their
families were being disturbed, which was having a very negative impact on their
mental and physical health. Many people were being rude and behaving improperly
toward the BLOs. When BLOs had to conduct door-to-door surveys, many neighbors
and other people would slam the door in their faces, not open the door at all,
ignore them, or tell them to leave in a disrespectful manner. There were no
properly sanitized restrooms for the BLOs. There were no proper arrangements
for food and water. The booth was not a comfortable environment for the BLOs to
work in.
Many educated
people—individuals who are well-educated, university professors, prominent
teachers, and businessmen—were not willing to write even a comma or a full stop
in the form without the BLO's attention. Because the forms had to be filled
both online and offline, the average time to complete just one form was 12 to
15 minutes. With an average BLO having to fill between 1,200 and 1,500 forms,
the time required for each individual form was becoming excessive. There were
many elderly BLOs who were quite advanced in age or were not very
technologically savvy. Additionally, the BLOs were not given any proper
training on how to carry out the SIR process. Everything was expected to be
done in a very short amount of time, which created a lot of chaos."
Bharti Malik: BLO
As a
BLO, according to you, what are the common problems the general public is
facing?
"To prove
your voter status, you need to show the name of either your mother, father,
grandfather, or grandmother in the 2003 electoral list. Providing the name of
any one of these four individuals will suffice.
Voter lists aren't
just about adding new people; they also involve removal. For example, if a
woman gets married, her name is removed from her original location and added to
the voter list where she now resides. Similarly, many people who have passed
away still have their names on the active voter list. This entire process is
essentially a 'filtration' of the voter list to ensure it is accurate and up to
date.
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