Stacks of enumeration forms cover the tables of a small office in an urban village at Mehrauli’s Rajokri Pahadi in the national capital. Visitors walk in carrying their Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, and passport-sized photographs. Many are unsure about the purpose of the exercise. Some believe it is a drive to renew voter cards while others assume a fresh enrolment campaign is under way. Most ask variations of the same question: “What documents are needed? What do we have to do?”
A Booth Level Officer (BLO), whom the residents refer to as “Masterji”, listens patiently to each visitor and helps them fill out their enumeration forms.
Nearly a week has passed since he, along with other BLOs, began going door to door as part of a special, month-long enumeration drive under the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls. Since June 30, when the drive started in Delhi, the BLO says his phone has been buzzing with calls from unknown numbers — mostly voters seeking information about their polling booth officers or asking how to complete the process.
The Hindu found similar scenes playing out across different districts in Delhi — BLOs attending to the queries of visitors largely unfamiliar with the process, mapping voters from previous rolls, distributing forms and collecting documents, often switching between door-to-door visits and interactions with large groups of voters to facilitate their enumeration.
The officers — mostly schoolteachers, anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, and employees from other government departments — have a month to conclude the drive. In this period, they must collect and digitise enumeration forms and identify absent, shifted, deceased, and duplicate voters across 13,033 polling booths in the city.
Delhi has 1.45 crore voters as per the electoral roll frozen on June 16 ahead of the SIR. As of Monday, 1.40 crore (97%) forms have been distributed and 14.03 lakh (9.68%) digitised.
Back in Rajokri Pahadi, close to the Delhi-Haryana border, Ashok Kumar, 61, reached with his Aadhaar card and voter ID, believing his old voter card might no longer be valid. “There might have been some problem, so I came like everyone else to get my voter card renewed,” he said.
Another visitor, 52-year-old Shanti Devi, said: “Our Masterji is very approachable. He helps everyone, so we are not worried. Whatever he writes on our form will be correct.”
The BLO, who did not wish to be identified, said, “Some people refuse to understand the process even when we offer to guide them. So, we have to do it ourselves. It takes time, but we will do it.”
To women, most of whom visit the office as their husbands are away at work, the BLO gives a stock reply: “Ek photo, Aadhaar card aur voter ID leke aana. Bhar denge aapka form [Bring a photograph, Aadhaar card, and voter ID. I’ll fill out your form].”
An anganwadi worker serving as a BLO checks names in the electoral roll, identifies the booth and serial numbers, hands over the forms, and notes down phone numbers to ensure that the completed forms are returned.
The door-to-door exercise presents its own set of challenges. Several addresses in the existing rolls are outdated or incomplete, especially in urban villages and informal settlements, according to BLOs. The enumeration forms come with the elector’s name, serial number and house address filled in, with other details to be added.
“Many voters have moved to different polling booths and their addresses have not been updated. If we know the elector, we can trace their current address. But if we can’t trace them, there is little we can do. Their names won’t appear on the draft electoral roll,” the BLO said.
In a JJ cluster in east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, a BLO described a similar problem: “Many electors are registered at the same house number or at a vague address without any house number. Sometimes the number is not even marked on the house, making it difficult to identify where to deliver the form.”
To overcome this, BLOs gather residents at a common location, distribute forms collectively, and answer questions before making follow-up visits.
Mapping migrant voters is another challenge. Several BLOs said they mapped 40-60% of voters using the 2002 roll, the last time the SIR was conducted in Delhi. However, those who shifted to the city after 2002 often require additional verification.
“We are able to fill in the details of the voters whom we have mapped. But migrants who came after 2002 need to share details with us, so we can trace their names or their relatives’ names in earlier rolls,” a BLO said.
“We can’t do much if voters from other States do not share their polling booth-related details. If their forms remain incomplete, their names may not appear in the draft roll,” the BLO added.
Often, their duty extends beyond the stipulated hours when the details of workers who leave home early and return late at night have to be verified.
A BLO at a booth in Mehrauli encountered a situation in which he could not find the enumeration forms for a few voters whose names had appeared in the latest roll.
“I searched for their serial numbers in the copies I had and I couldn’t find their names, so I asked my senior. He asked me to get their forms printed from the Election Commission office,” the BLO said.
BLOs are paid ₹12,000 annually. A special incentive of ₹6,000 was announced to carry out the SIR. A BLO said while their workload is much higher than their compensation, they are trying their best to ensure that no voter’s name is left out.
“These are all our people. One can understand how important a government document such as a voter ID card is for them. We will do our best to ensure no genuine voter is left out,” the BLO said.
Published - July 14, 2026 12:29 am IST