PUNITIVE APPROACH

The Supreme Court's intervention yesterday, calling on states to ease the severe pressure faced by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, has forced the country to confront an uncomfortable truth: the world's largest democracy is leaning far too heavily on some of its most overworked and least empowered workers.

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The petition filed by Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) before the Court laid out a disturbing account of the relentless hours, coercive instructions and unyielding deadlines imposed on BLOS across multiple states. These workers-primarily teachers and anganwadi staff-have been thrust into a time-bound enumeration exercise requiring early-morning and late-night field visits, lengthy documentation work, and navigation through areas with poor connectivity, all while maintaining their regular government responsibilities. Reports of suicides, including the tragic case of a young man denied leave for his own wedding, have underscored the human cost of an administrative schedule divorced from human reality. That BLOs are being met not with support but with FIRS under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act-threatening imprisonment and fines for delays-reveals a troubling shift in how electoral duties are being enforced. When fear becomes a tool of compliance and exhaustion replaces efficiency, the democratic process begins to compromise the very people essential to its functioning.