Noida: Birthdays, weddings, Sundays and time with children — for many govt school teachers doubling as booth-level officers (BLOs), the ordinary markers of family life have increasingly given way to door-to-door visits and official assignments.After months spent revising electoral rolls, conducting Census-related work and now preparing for another round of voter verification, most barely have had the time to recover before the next task arrived.A year without any breakFor Rupendra Kumar (46), a BLO from Muradnagar in Ghaziabad, the relentless cycle has taken a toll on both his family life and health. “I have not been able to give time to my children. I have forgotten about home. There has been no life for me whatsoever,” he said.During special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, BLOs were asked to stay away from birthdays, weddings and other social occasions to focus on fieldwork. Kumar spent long hours riding through the scorching heat, visiting homes repeatedly to collect documents and returning to households till late in the evening.“On the bike, in that heat, we kept visiting homes and asking people for the same documents over and over again. People would get frustrated and yell at us. At times, we felt we had reached our limit,” he said.The SIR exercise was followed by Census-related work, which Kumar found relatively manageable. But officials were subsequently assigned different areas, while fresh training added to the workload. Now, with another round of special summary revision (SSR) approaching, the cycle is set to begin again.Kumar said he consulted a doctor immediately after completing the Census assignment and was diagnosed with migraine. He also said the prolonged strain had left him battling depression as well.School ends, fieldwork beginsFor Suman, a Shiksha Mitra in Tughlakpur in Greater Noida, the pressure is compounded by the disparity in pay. She said she performs the same field duties as permanent teachers, some of whom earn around Rs 1 lakh a month, while her remuneration is only Rs 18,000. A single mother, she also has children to care for.“I am doing the same work as permanent teachers. They earn around Rs 1 lakh, while I get only Rs 18,000. I am not even a permanent teacher. I am a single mother and have responsibilities towards my children too. There is no space left for my own ambitions,” she told TOI.Her working day does not end when school closes. She attends classes from 9am to 3pm before heading out for field assignments. Four days of SIR training, followed by four days of Census-related training and work, and now another round of SSR training have left little room for respite. “We cannot say no,” she said.Sunday? It’s a working dayFor Khusboo Rai, a BLO in Knowledge Park, the loss of weekly holidays has become one of the hardest parts of the assignment. “We have not known a Sunday for a long time. We get some extra money, around Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000, but that does not compensate for losing our Sundays,” she said.There have also been instances when she attended school for half a day before leaving to complete official work. With another round of training approaching, the pressure is mounting on her. She said being assigned different areas for SIR and Census work added to the difficulty, particularly in rural locations.“During Census, I was given a village area. They could have easily given me the same area that I had been assigned during SIR. That would have helped. Locating people’s houses in rural areas is a task in itself,” she said.Training, but not for every hurdleFor Seema Saini, a BLO in Sahibabad, the difficulty lies in translating classroom training into the realities of fieldwork. “It is different attending training sessions and actually facing problems on the ground. The anxiety is real. Initially, I did not know what to do,” she said.She was fortunate to have three BLOs working as a group, helping one another understand documentation requirements. “People cooperate at times. I was lucky to have a group of three BLOs. They would explain the documents to me,” she said.Census work was easier, she admitted, because it involved asking around 40 prescribed questions and using a map to locate households, without collecting and verifying documents. SIR was more demanding. BLOs had to explain why particular papers were needed while themselves understanding which documents had to be sought from whom.“It was tough to make people understand the documents we needed. And equally tough for us to understand which documents to ask from whom,” she said.Saini believes the workload would be more manageable if teachers were relieved of their regular school duties while handling election assignments. “When we have to do both duties together, it becomes difficult. We can manage if they relieve us from school work,” she said.
