Pune: After Odisha and Telangana received extensions for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, there is growing speculation that Maharashtra too could seek more time if the exercise is not completed by the Aug 8 deadline.But for thousands of teachers doubling up as booth-level officers (BLOs), an extension offers little comfort. Many said they would rather see the exercise conclude on schedule or have teachers handling higher classes exempted from election duty as the dual responsibility of teaching and voter verification is beginning to affect classroom teaching.Teachers deployed as BLOs told TOI that their workday now stretches well into the night. After teaching through the day, they spend the rest of it and a good part of the evening visiting households, attending SIR camps and making repeated phone calls to voters who could not be contacted during door-to-door verification.“We finish classes in the afternoon and head straight for election duty. If residents are unavailable, we sit at camps and make calls, asking them to bring their forms. Many never turn up, so we have to follow up again the next day,” a govt school teacher serving as a BLO in Pune.Other educators said urban constituencies have made the exercise particularly challenging because of frequent migration, rented accommodation and outdated electoral records.“In many cases, voters have shifted from one assembly constituency to another but their names are at the old address. Sometimes, the address is incomplete or the family has moved out. We spend hours searching for a voter only to find no one lives there anymore,” another teacher-BLO said.Several teachers said verification camps are a practical necessity. “We do visit homes. Only after finding houses locked repeatedly do we call voters or send WhatsApp messages asking them to visit the camp. Many cooperate, but others don’t answer calls or fail to turn up even after confirming. We then have to repeat the process,” another BLO said.Election officials said they have received repeated representations from teachers seeking relief from BLO duties because of the growing academic workload.“Teachers want to be excused from election duty, particularly those handling Stds X and XII. They say they have to complete the syllabus, conduct practicals, unit tests and hold extra classes for board students. However, the SIR is a statutory exercise and the available manpower has to be deployed to complete it within the prescribed timeline,” an election official said.Teachers said the pressure of balancing both responsibilities was becoming increasingly difficult. “We are already conducting extra classes to compensate for teaching hours lost to election work. Lesson planning, assessments and remedial teaching have all been affected,” a secondary school teacher from Pune said.Another teacher said students appearing for board examinations need sustained academic support. “If teachers of higher classes could be spared from BLO work, schools would be able to manage both responsibilities much better,” the teacher added.Some teachers said repeated interactions with voters also added to the pressure. “Most cooperate, but others don’t understand the SIR drive and scold us. We still follow up because every voter has to be contacted,” a BLO said.
