Relationship in SIR Form Flummoxes Voters
The relationship field has created considerable confusion not only among electors, but amongst volunteers, and even booth level officers tasked with guiding voters to fill the form
Hyderabad: The Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll has raised concerns among people for various reasons. What has become a major cause for concern is a single field in the enumeration form (EF), which denotes the relationship between the voter and his or her relative.
According to sources, the relationship field has created considerable confusion not only among electors, but amongst volunteers, and even booth level officers tasked with guiding voters to fill the form, and could potentially affect genuine electors during the verification process.
They appear to be confused about whose relationship they need to fill in the ‘relationship’ field. If the relationship sought to be known is the relative’s relation with the elector, it could be father, mother, brother, sister or any blood relative. If the relationship sought is the voter’s relation with the relative, it could be son, daughter, or any other blood relation.
Since the relationship field is not descriptive, the volunteers said people could get confused and fill in the wrong detail, which could lead to inconsistent data entry, verification delays, and avoidable disputes during scrutiny. Such procedural deficiencies place an unnecessary burden on electors as well as election officials.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, M.A. Mujeeb Ayyub, the founder of ADALAH (Access to Justice Network),a civil society organisation, said, “The existing ‘relationship’ column in the legacy mapping section lacks clarity on whose relationship is required to be recorded. Since the primary objective of legacy verification is to establish a clear linkage between the present elector and the person whose historical electoral record is being relied upon, the field in the form should be explicitly named the ‘Relationship with Elector’ rather than leaving room for multiple interpretations.”
He said the issue was brought to the notice of the election authorities before the start of the enumeration phase on June 3, but it was not addressed.
“I brought the matter to the attention of the Chief Electoral Officer, Telangana, requesting a simple administrative correction through the introduction of a separate ‘Relationship with Elector’ column or an official clarification. Unfortunately, the issue was not addressed at that stage,” Ayyub explained.
Complaining about the lack of detailed instructions, Mohammed Jameel, a volunteer from Karimnagar, said, “There is no video explainer from the authorities on how to fill up the enumeration form. Owing to this, there is a lot of misinformation among voters, including those without proper education. Those who have access to senior-level officials are getting suggestions orally, but the message is not delivered to the public at large, leading to confusion.”
Jameel said the officials should release a detailed video on how to fill in each column. “We are asking the people not to fill in the form in haste till the official explainer comes.”