Gujarat teacher involved in SIR found dead

A note the teacher purportedly left behind said he was exhausted from the SIR workload, depressed, and could no longer continue

A school teacher involved in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll was found dead at his residence in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district on Friday. A note the teacher purportedly left behind said he was exhausted from the SIR workload, depressed, and could no longer continue, while apologising to his wife and son. It said he had no strength left.

Police said they were investigating the matter. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

His family said the teacher was handling regular class work and SIR responsibilities and had been complaining about sleepless nights and mounting pressure to meet daily targets for voter list verification and data entry.

Gir Somnath police superintendent Jaydeepsinh Jadeja said they were investigating the matter. “The body has been sent for post-mortem examination.” Jadeja said he cannot confirm or deny any suicide note or comment on who wrote it. “The family is in shock, and we are handling the situation with utmost sensitivity.”

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said thousands of teachers have been compulsorily drafted as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for electoral duties. “For the complex SIR exercise, 99% of BLOs are primary teachers. ...This is ruining education for poor and marginalised children, with 3-4 teachers from single schools often deployed for BLO duty.”

Doshi said the BLOs faced impossible deadlines. “The form upload portal crawls at a snail’s pace. The result is that neither SIR targets are met nor do classrooms function. Both electoral work and children’s learning are collapsing,” said Doshi.

This week, a school teacher died of a heart attack in Kheda district’s Kapadvanj taluka. His family blamed excessive workload from the SIR duties for the death.