Home / Education / Grassroots Election Workers Overwhelmed by Expanding Duties and Lack of Resources
Grassroots Election Workers Overwhelmed by Expanding Duties and Lack of Resources
15 Nov
Summary
- BLOs (Booth Level Officers) face exhausting schedules, distributing up to 500 forms
- Voters unaware of the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SIR) process
- BLOs struggle to assist voters, often visiting households multiple times
As of November 15, 2025, the voter enumeration process in Kerala has been a significant challenge for the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) tasked with its implementation. BLOs, who represent the Election Commission of India at the grassroots level, are responsible for ensuring a free and transparent election process. However, they are currently facing an exhausting schedule and expanding duties that are making it difficult to complete the work within the stipulated time.
Many BLOs have reported having over 500 forms left to distribute, which is nearly half of their total workload. They can only manage to distribute around 70-80 forms per day, with some managing to distribute up to 100 forms in a single day. The process has been further complicated by the fact that the BLOs were initially instructed to fill out the forms for the voters, which took a significant amount of time. Now, they have been told to only distribute the forms, but this has not made the process any easier.
The BLOs also face challenges in terms of voter awareness and understanding. A majority of the voters they have visited were unaware of the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SIR) process, with many assuming it was related to the upcoming local body elections. Explaining the SIR process to each voter can take up to 20 minutes, further slowing down the enumeration process.
Additionally, the BLOs have faced issues in verifying the details of voters who have changed their names or residences over the past two decades. Tracing these voters and finding their old voter records has been a significant challenge, with some BLOs unable to locate certain voters at all.
Despite the Chief Electoral Officer's confidence in the BLOs' ability to complete the work within the stipulated time, the ground reality paints a different picture. The BLOs have expressed that the expectations are "not realistic" and that they are struggling to manage their regular jobs alongside the enumeration work.
