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Mangaluru: The Election Commission’s special intensive revision process has been contentious for several reasons, among which is the extraordinary pressure it has put on Block Level Officers or BLOs who are expected to do the preliminary bulk of ground work in addition to their government jobs. Under severe pressure and with impending deadlines, many BLOs have resorted to measures that, in turn, invite serious concerns on privacy rights. 

A few weeks ago, Harshita Kale, a Pune-based journalist, was unexpectedly added to a WhatsApp group. It had no description, no familiar names, but more than a hundred members. Assuming it was spam, she had immediately exited.

Within minutes, her phone began ringing. It was the group’s administrator, who called her repeatedly. When she didn’t answer, she was added back.

Only later did Kale realise that the group’s administrator was the BLO for the constituency where she is registered to vote and the WhatsApp group had been created as part of the ongoing SIR of the electoral rolls.

“Until then, I was frankly unaware that the SIR process was underway in Maharashtra,” she says. Soon after, what alarmed Kale, she says, was how scores of people voluntarily uploaded personal documents – identity proofs, address proofs and other sensitive records – into a group in which the documents would be visible to every member.

The BLO, who The Wire spoke to,........

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