SIR 2.0 | Anxiety and unawareness mark enumeration process in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Sixty-seven year old Xavier of Valiyathura coastal area of Thiruvananthapuram is frantically going through the voters lists at a special intensive revision (SIR) enumeration camp in his locality on Tuesday as he didn't get the enumeration form while all other members in his family got it.

Another woman from the locality also reaches the community hall with a similar plight. These are not one off cases in the state. Many are anxious, not just that they may miss the chance to vote, but the fear that their citizenship could be even affected in the due course.

A campaign has been doing the rounds that SIR is a prelude to the screening of citizenship and they may be denied benefits from the government.

"What will happen if I did not submit the enumeration? Will it affect my citizenship? These are the real concerns that force many to take part in the SIR enumeration," says Melvin Vinod, a social activist at Valiyathura.

Saifudding Hajji, a social activist of nearby Vallakadavu also shares the same plight. "We are liaising with the BLOs of the region and setting up camps where all BLOs of the regions will be present. Thus many untraceable voters could be traced," he said.

He also pointed out that many were finding it difficult to provide the details of their predecessors in the 2002 voters like, which is being considered by the election commission as the base data.

Booth level officers cite many reasons for the number of untraceable voters going up in the state, which is already around three lakh.

"In thickly populated coastal areas members of the same households will be in different polling booths. Hence enumeration forms of residents of one house could be with different BLOs. In urban areas scores of families are staying in rented houses and they shift residences frequently. These factors make it difficult to trace the voters," said a BLO of the coastal area.

NRIs fear of being wiped out from electoral rolls

In NRI belts of central Kerala scores of houses are remaining shut with entire family members settled abroad. Usually most of them hardly respond to such exercise. However, the anxiety over citizenship is one reason why many are trying to do the SIR enumeration.

"We have even conveyed to the district election authorities the concerns that many NRI families in the locality shared that they may lose their citizenship in case they miss to do the SIR enumeration. The hasty manner in which SIR is being carried out as well as collection of details of up to three generations are reasons many cite for these anxiety," said Abraham Mathew, a priest at Thiruvalla, one of the key NRI pockets in Kerala.

Indian Overseas Congress middle east convener Mansoor Palloor said that NRIs were really concerned over the ongoing enumeration process as they had no communication with the booth level officers and were not getting proper information. Even as many NRIs tried to do the online enumeration, many couldn't do it due to technical glitches.

Meanwhile, Kerala chief electoral officer Rathan Kelkar said that all individual issues with regard to online enumeration were being sorted out by the election commission's help desk. So far 61,194 persons did online enumeration in Kerala.

Unawareness of voters increases BLOs' strain

A key strain that the BLOs are encountering is the lack of awareness among the people.

Since the local body polls in Kerala are also now happening simultaneously, many are under the impression that the SIR process is related to that too.

"Many even lacked basic awareness about SIR. We have to spend majority of time to clear the anxiety of the voters as well as to clear their basic queries," a BLO in the state capital said.