The SIR exercise is also a technology failure, Pg8

Key Highlights:

• The 2025-26 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of India's electoral rolls faced significant technological failures, leading to voter exclusion.
• The Election Commission of India (ECI) implemented a centralized digital platform, ERONet, for this large-scale revision.
• Key issues included 'logical discrepancy' flags based on age and family size, unvalidated name matching across different scripts, and frequent system changes during the process.
• Instructions and new features were often communicated via videos and WhatsApp, rather than formal written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Discrepancies emerged between online forms, such as Form 6, and their statutory requirements, creating "structural incongruities."
• Tight deadlines, driven by the electoral calendar, further exacerbated the challenges, leading to many cases remaining unresolved.

Detailed Insights:

• The SIR highlighted a failure in effectively leveraging India's digital public infrastructure capabilities for a core democratic function.
• 'Logical discrepancy' flags generated by ERONet often misfired because electoral roll ages are frequently approximate, especially for older citizens.
• An analysis in Delhi indicated a disproportionately higher flagging rate for Muslim electors under family-size checks.
• Name matching across decades and languages, such as Bengali to English, resulted in garbled entries and over 1.3 crore flagged entries in West Bengal.
• Frequent, unannounced changes to algorithms and features during the live SIR operation caused considerable stress and rework for Booth Level Officers (BLOs).
• The absence of written SOPs meant Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) implemented decisions based on software changes, reducing their discretion.
• The online Form 6 included mandatory declarations about parents and grandparents that were not part of the statutory form and were not approved by the Supreme Court.
• The timing of the revision was dictated by the electoral calendar rather than the system's readiness, leading to rushed processes and final rolls with many cases still "under adjudication."

Key Concepts Involved:

• Special Intensive Revision (SIR): A comprehensive exercise conducted by the Election Commission of India to update and purify electoral rolls.
• ERONet: The Election Commission of India's centralized digital platform designed for the management and revision of electoral rolls.
• Booth Level Officer (BLO): A local government official appointed by the ECI to assist in the management of electoral rolls at the polling booth level.
• Form 6: A statutory application form used by citizens to apply for the inclusion of their name in the electoral roll.