Are BLOs being made the fall guys?

Between circulating celebratory videos of dancing booth level officers (BLOs) and issuing threatening FIRs against those who have been ‘slacking off’ on their SIR duties, a serious doubt has gone largely unaddressed. How has the Election Commission of India (ECI) selected and trained the BLOs?

The Commission claims to have ‘trained’ BLOs and supervisors in Uttar Pradesh over four days between 29 October and 3 November. A large number of BLOs, including Mohit Chaudhary and Firdous, say they never saw a minute of this training.

On 2 December, Chaudhary, an irrigation department employee in Meerut deputised as a BLO, attempted suicide by consuming pesticide. His wife Jyoti said her husband had been distressed for days. He had confessed to feeling nervous about performing a task he wasn’t prepared for.

Voters expected him to fill up their forms, even accept incomplete forms. His supervisors expected him to upload flawless forms — or else. He feared he would be suspended or even lose his job. Mohit was lucky — Jyoti rushed him to Lokpriya Hospital and he survived.

Bipin Yadav, a BLO from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, was not so lucky. He left a video of his last moments. Bipin had confided to his brother-in-law Prateek that the SDM, Lekhpal and BDO were pressuring him to delete the names of OBCs and Dalits. Like Mohit Chaudhary, he felt trapped. If he refused, he risked falling afoul of the ‘system’. If he obliged, he might face the wrath of the voters for his ‘mistake’.

Firdous, a BLO in Meerut, looked traumatised when we met her on 25 November. She too said she received no training. When she voiced doubts about her competence for the job, she was told she could not refuse it. Look, she said, it’s already 4.00 pm and I’ve only been able to upload two enumeration forms until now.

Firdous was scared of computers, never having used one. Nor had anyone else at home. And no, she hadn’t received a single rupee, yet she was soldiering on. She was terrified of losing this ‘job’ and the Rs 7,500 she received as an Anganwadi worker.

Firdous solicited the help of Nazmeen, who has some experience of working as a BLO in earlier elections. The two women were struggling to upload the forms on their mobile phones. If the server works and the signal is strong, it takes five minutes to upload one form, Nazmeen told us. It takes me 10 minutes, said Firdous. At this rate, uploading 100 enumeration forms would take 16 hours of non-stop work a day!

This is the story one hears from UP to Gujarat to West Bengal. Most Anganwadi workers, auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and ASHA workers who have been drafted as BLOs are facing technical issues for lack of training and exposure. Many cannot scan and upload documents. School teachers are similarly handicapped. If the Election Commission is to be believed, this has not come in the way of a successful SIR.

The haste with which it is forging on has led people to speculate that the Commission actually wants BLOs to trip up. They can be blamed and punished for making ‘mistakes’ that ECI officials can selectively (and retrospectively) correct. Doubtless, such ‘corrections’ would really be deletions.

The video of beaming BLOs in Kerala shaking a leg during break time is not the only proof offered of how well the SIR is going. On 2 December, the Election Commission issued a press note claiming that nearly 46 crore forms — over 90 per cent — had already been ‘digitised’ and that 99.78 per cent of voters in the 12 states and UTs where the exercise is being conducted had already received their enumeration forms.

The press note also provided a state-wise breakup, claiming that West Bengal had digitised 97.38 per cent of the forms, Madhya Pradesh 95.69 per cent, Tamil Nadu 94.32 per cent and Gujarat 91.45 per cent. Uttar Pradesh lagged behind with only 79 per cent of its forms digitised.

The figures raise a heap of questions. If it’s going so well in Bengal, then why was the deadline extended from 4 December to 11 December? What about the BLOs reported to have killed themselves due to harassment on their ‘slow progress’?

What of the massive publicity given to the alleged exodus of Bangladeshi Muslims from West Bengal, with settlement after settlement apparently abandoned by voters in border districts? The figures do not tally with ground reports.

Then, there’s a whole caboodle of glitches. The BLO app, proudly rolled out in regional languages, works best only in English and Hindi, say the BLOs who are actually using it. Erratic internet speeds and stalling servers are common complaints. BLOs need to scan the forms before uploading them, but with so many not being smartphone savvy, that’s another hurdle.

Maya Ben, a teacher in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, says the ‘order’ to start working as a BLO was a bolt from the blue. She spent sleepless nights, while her days were an endless stream of people struggling to fill and upload their forms. Most wanted her to fill them up. After several reports of BLOs in Gujarat collapsing on duty or resorting to suicide, the Gujarat government engaged operators to upload the forms, Maya told us.

In West Bengal, the chief electoral officer invited applications for data entry operators on contract for a year. This, days before the SIR is set to conclude.

Unlike the annual summary revisions of electoral rolls, when BLOs sit at the polling booth and accept forms for additions and deletions, the SIR is a door-to-door marathon. BLOs must visit every household, deliver pre-printed enumeration forms based on the 2002–03 rolls, issue carbon-copy receipts and then upload everything onto the BLO app. Voters are often not at home, which means repeat visits. No wonder so many BLOs are breaking down.

Outside metropolitan cities, BLOs are at the receiving end of municipal misgovernance. Even in Meerut town area, houses seem to have arbitrary numbers. House number 1,200 is next to house number 1,500 which is next to house number 900, points out local resident Mahendra Sharma. Unwittingly perhaps, he provides an insight into why it’s taking so long to distribute and collect forms.

In West Bengal, a BLO was as stumped as septuagenarian Subhash Chandra Roy who was handed a form for a ‘third son’ he didn’t know he had. The BLO insisted the form clearly specified him as the father. Scandalised, the old man insisted he had no such son.

Uncorrected glitches from the rolls of 2002–03 have crept into the SIR, vitiating the exercise further. Fathers-in-law have been shown as husbands, husbands as fathers. It’s highly unlikely these will be sorted within the tight deadline, which adds to the BLOs woes.

Mahendra Sharma of Meerut seemed sympathetic to their plight. The forms, he says, are confusing. Which ‘relative’ should be mentioned? Father, grandfather or husband? BLOs are at a loss to explain. Some forms carry the wrong names and phone numbers of assigned BLOs.

Sharma, who works as a booth-level agent of a political party, recalls calling one Ashok Kumar for a clarification. The call, however, was received by one Sandeep who lives in Mawana, 20 km away. On another form, the BLO listed was a woman but the phone number was her husband’s.

Shahid Manzoor, former education minister in UP and four-term-MLA, estimates that not more than 4–5 per cent of the BLOs are tech-savvy. The Commission, he says, should have done due diligence in selecting and training the BLOs adequately.

Criticising the policy of engaging government school teachers for everything from human and animal census to midday meals to BLOs, Manzoor is aggrieved by the flurry of FIRs lodged against BLOs in UP. They are kicking the can down the road, shirking their own responsibilities and setting up the BLO as the scapegoat, says Manzoor.

Against the background of BLOs succumbing to nervous breakdowns, supervisors are anxious to reach the finish line without more mishaps. “Zehar mat khaa lena (please don’t take poison)," says Mukesh Singh Kushwaha, a supervisor in Baheri, UP, to his BLOs, offering to help them if necessary. Not all supervisors are as sympathetic.

Smooth, simple and seamless? It would take nothing short of a miracle to accept the ECI’s version of how the SIR is unfolding.