47.35% SIR enumeration forms digitised, says Election Commission

With 10 days remaining to complete the enumeration phase of the second round of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Election Commission of India on Monday (November 24, 2025) said more than 47% of the enumeration forms distributed across 12 States and Union Territories have been digitised.

Goa has achieved the highest digitisation at 76.89% followed by Rajasthan at 72.20%, while Kerala and Uttar Pradesh have the lowest at 23% and 26.6% respectively.

The enumeration phase, which began on November 4, will end on December 4. The draft list will be published on December 9 following which the period for claims and objections will begin.

According to the poll body, out of the 51 crore voters being covered in this SIR, enumeration forms of 50,50,24,723, or 99.07%, have been collected and 24,13,75,229 (47.35%) have been digitised.

Currently, the SIR is being held in Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.

The enumeration phase involves distribution of forms, collection of the filled ones, and uploading the data on the Commission’s website through dedicated applications. The whole exercise is being done by booth-level officers (BLOs), making them the most important cog in the wheel. However, the BLOs are racing against time.

While some states such as West Bengal have witnessed protests over ‘excess workload’, there have been some reports of suicides by BLOs over alleged work-related stress. In Kerala, a BLO, who complained of stress, was offered to quit SIR duties. However, he has expressed willingness to continue.

A correspondent from The Hindu visited a tehsil office in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district and saw BLOs swarm a camp being run by district authorities to monitor the implementation of the SIR. Most were seeking clarifications from senior officials on uploading of documents.

“How are we supposed to fill so many forms in such a short span of time. I am a teacher. Do I complete the syllabus or fill these forms? I am 55 years old and do not have the technological wherewithal to understand all this,” an anguished Manju Devi told The Hindu.

She said she was confused with the process as forms were being distributed only to those who had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “What is the point of conducting the exercise then? When we upload the data, sometimes it throws up similar names,” she said.

Rajesh Kumar, another schoolteacher doubling as a BLO, said: “The BLO app crashes frequently. When we want to upload the photos, sometimes it takes a lot of time. And if we miss the process, we have to start all over again. While we are doing the work, we keep getting calls from our supervisor to monitor the progress. Should we answer calls or do our work?”

Many BLOs have also enlisted their families for help in this regard. A BLO in Meerut, who is an Anganwadi worker, said she has engaged her daughter for the digitisation work.

Most BLOs are teachers at government schools, Anganwadi workers, mid-day meal workers, revenue staff such as patwari, amin, or lekhpal, panchayat secretaries and village-level workers, health workers, auxiliary nurses and midwives, postmen, and electricity bill readers and clerical staff in urban areas. When the Election Commission launched the SIR, BLOs were given intensive training on the rules, enumeration of forms, and uploading of data.

A senior government official said that there is immense pressure on them to finish the work before December 4. “All other work has taken a backseat”.

Published – November 24, 2025 08:45 pm IST