Relationship in SIR Form Flummoxes Voters
Hyderabad: The Election Commission’s special massive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has raised concerns among people for various reasons. A single field on the enumeration form (EF) indicating the relationship between the voter and his/her relative has become a major concern.
According to sources, the engagement field has created significant confusion not only among voters but also among volunteers and even booth-level officials tasked with directing voters to fill out the form and could potentially impact actual voters during the verification process.
They seem confused about whose relationship they should fill in the ‘Relationship’ field. If the relationship to be known is a close relationship with the voter, this could be father, mother, brother, sister or any blood relative. If the kinship sought is the voter’s relative, this may be a son, daughter, or any other blood relative.
Because the relationship field is non-identifying, volunteers said people can get confused and fill out the wrong details, leading to inconsistent data entry, verification delays and avoidable disputes during review. Such procedural deficiencies place an unnecessary burden on election officials as well as voters.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, MA Mujeeb Ayyub, founder of ADALAH (Access to Justice Network), a non-governmental organisation, said, “The existing ‘relationship’ column in the heritage mapping section lacks clarity as to whose relationship should be recorded. Since the main purpose of succession verification is to establish a clear connection between the current voter and the person whose historical election record is relied upon, the field in the form should be clearly named ‘Relationship to Voter’ instead of leaving room for multiple interpretations.”
He said the issue was brought to the attention of election officials before the counting phase began on June 3, but was not addressed.
“I brought the issue to the notice of the Chief Electoral Officer, Telangana and requested a simple administrative fix by adding a separate ‘Voter Relations’ column or issuing an official statement. Unfortunately, the issue was not taken up at that stage,” Ayyub said.
Complaining about the lack of detailed instructions, Karimnagar volunteer Mohammed Jameel said, “There is no video explanation from the authorities on how to fill the enumeration form. Hence, there is a lot of misinformation among voters, including those without proper education. Those who have access to senior officials get verbal suggestions, but the message is not conveyed to the public at large, leading to confusion.”
Jameel said the authorities should release a detailed video on how to fill in each column. “We ask the public not to fill out the form in a hurry until the official statement comes.”
