Among the many issues that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country has unleashed, is the burden and stress it is causing to booth level officers (BLO) tasked with distributing forms, enumerating voters, and verifying lists. For several weeks now, news of stressed out, exhausted BLOs resigning, and, in far too many cases, dying or committing suicide have been pouring in. These grim stories put a much-needed spotlight on the lived realities of India’s sarkari (government) officers.

Far away from the comfort, glamour and power of the lal batti (red beacon), are India’s street-level bureaucrats or other government personnel, the block development officer, the patwari (revenue officer), the schoolteacher, the Asha worker. It is through these government functionaries that most Indians encounter the power and possibilities of the Indian State. But their presence on the national mainstage is mainly as a caricature of all that is wrong with the Indian State. The corrupt, apathetic, incompetent officers living off taxpayers’ largesse who bear the responsibility for the Indian State’s stubborn refusal to provide even the most basic of public services — from clean streets to clean air.

Our policy debates are preoccupied with curtailing their role and curbing any discretion they enjoy in implementation. This is why the Indian State has one of the most centralised governance structures in the world. Local governments account for a mere 3% of total government expenditure,........

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