On 7 October, officials assigned Sarvesh Singh an assistant teacher by profession SIR responsibilities, marking his first-ever poll-related task. As the deadline loomed, Sarvesh reportedly worked long hours, often sleeping only a few hours a night, but still felt he couldn’t meet the required targets.
In his final recorded video message, he tearfully acknowledged failure to complete the work and sought forgiveness from his family a haunting plea that has sparked outrage across the state.Pressure Police recovered a two-page suicide note in which he described the pressure and inability to cope, pointing to deadlines, workload, and mental strain.
This is not the first such death in recent weeks. Other BLOs across Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states reportedly died or collapsed under similar stress linked to SIR duties raising urgent questions about the demands placed on grassroots election officials.
Opposition parties and civil-society groups have condemned the situation. Critics argue that compressing what is typically a multi-year voter-verification exercise into a few months has created unrealistic workloads. Some are calling for a re-evaluation of the SIR process, better support and mental-health safeguards for field officials, and compensation for families of deceased workers.
