MUMBAI, July 16 -- The digital data entry of Mumbai's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has reached a mere 12% even as the one-month deadline to complete the process (July 29) is drawing near. The reasons behind this lag are missing two-decade-old electoral records, confusion over multiple residences of voters, redevelopment-related address changes and an overburdened field staff. While voters are struggling to understand and put together documents dating back 2002 (the last cycle of SIR), Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are overwhelmed by manual paperwork and unavailability of residents, leaving Mumbai well behind rural Maharashtra in digital enumeration. One of the worst affected in this exercise are married women with changed names who have to rely on their parents' electoral records for verification. Swapna Shinde (and others like her), a resident of Pratiksha Nagar, is in a bind as she has been unable to locate the 2002 electoral record of her father, Vaijnath Bhakre, a voter in Beed district. "While I voted for both the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2026 BMC election, I still need my father's or mother's records for mapping. If those records cannot be found, I will have to submit documents proving my nationality," said Shinde. Those owning multiple homes are uncertain whether they can retain their names at their old address while registering at a new one. Vikrant Kamerkar, who shifted from Parel to Chembur a few years ago, said even the local BLO could not clarify. "We were asked to bring documents and fill forms for all family members, but there was no clarity on whether our names could be registered at Chembur without deleting the old entries," he said. Large-scale redevelopment across Mumbai has added another layer of complexity. While political parties have urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allow residents living in transit accommodation to continue voting from their original constituencies, the proposal to consider the residence which went into redevelopment is under consideration, said an official. Equally fraught are displaced slum dwellers whose houses were demolished, leading them to shift to other areas. The challenges are not limited to voters. BLOs - largely government school teachers - say the exercise has significantly increased their workload. Each BLO is mandated to map nearly 1,200 electors in a month. However, they have collectively fallen short of as only 10% of voters or residents are available at their residences through the work hour, say official records. In order to improve the coverage, BLOs have now been asked to carry out verification even on weekends. A south Mumbai-posted BLO, who did not wish to be named, blamed the backlog also on residents' reluctance to provide documents proving their nationality. Long working hours are also taking a toll on the field staff. A BLO who lives in Panvel and teaches at a school in Colaba, said he leaves home at 5 am to reach school by 7 am and spends the afternoon and evening conducting door-to-door verification until around 6 pm. Some are also irked by cumbersome paperwork - a BLO pointed out that although they were assured that voters whose records had already been digitally mapped would be pre-filled, they continue to receive blank forms that have to be completed manually in duplicate. ECI officials said the slow pace of the exercise in Mumbai reflects these ground-level challenges. Joint chief electoral officer Manohar Parkar said digital data entry in Mumbai has reached only 12%, compared with nearly 25% in rural Maharashtra. "Unavailability of voters in Mumbai and BLOs workload are reasons behind the slow pace of work. However, those who cannot produce their 2002 SIR records can continue in the electoral rolls by producing the prescribed supporting documents," said Parkar....