‘She wanted to resign’: BLO dies by suicide, her family in Bengal alleges ‘work pressure’

According to the family, on Wednesday morning, when they could not find her inside the house, they began searching and found the body in the courtyard. Local police recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, upon hearing the news, took to social media. She posted on X: “Deeply shocked and saddened. Today again, we lost a Booth Level Officer in Mal, Jalpaiguri — an anganwadi worker who took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work. 28 people have already lost their lives since SIR began — some due to fear and uncertainty, others due to stress and overload. Such precious lives are being lost because of the unplanned, relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Commission of India. A process that earlier took 3 years is now being forced into 2 months on the eve of elections to please political masters, putting inhuman pressure on BLOs. I urge the ECI to act with conscience and immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives are lost.”

While the Chief Electoral Office is yet to issue an official statement, a senior official of the CEO said that a report has been sought from the Booth District Officer (BDO), following which the office will decide on steps to be taken.

Speaking to the media, the woman’s son Bishu Ekka said, “She was very disturbed mentally. She had tremendous work pressure, there was work pressure of ICDS (Integrated Child Development Service) and then this BLO duty. There were too many forms and the forms were in Bengali and no one was able to help us. I thought she was cooking but my father told me what had happened.”

Soko Ekka, her husband, said, “The forms are in Bengali and this is a Hindi-speaking area. Many are not understanding and filling in wrongly. She was under tremendous pressure; she used to tell me that with the BLO work, she was unable to do any other work. She had gone to give her resignation also but the officer said that since her name was there, it cannot be cancelled. We thought that she had gone to cook in the morning but later, we saw her hanging.”

Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, meanwhile, said, “… I have found out the reason is the joint BDO. The EC has no role. The TMC was to destroy the SIR, but we are happy that the SIR has begun in Bengal. In all the remaining states where SIR is going on, nothing is happening, this is happening only in TMC-ruled Bengal.”

Soon after the news broke, Minister for Backward Classes Welfare Bulu Chik Baraik visited the family and assured support.

This comes days after BLO Namita Hansdar died of a brain stroke in Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman on November 9. She had been taken to hospital when she fell ill, with her family alleging that she had to work “day and night” in her role as BLO of booth number 278 of Chowk Balrampur, Memari.