Government surveyors will visit all homes to build database via Aadhaar numbers

GURGAON: The Haryana government has planned a state-wide survey to create an online repository of socio-economic data of residents of all households. The purpose, according to government officials, is to ensure welfare schemes reach beneficiaries.

The district administrations will be in charge of appointing field surveyors to conduct the Jan Kalyan Suraksha Survey (JKSS) and have been given access to an app to record data after validation.

The Gurgaon administration will conduct the survey in 3,66,896 households in the district. All 18,34,480 residents will be covered under JKSS.

The survey initially included biometrics of residents and was to be launched from Monday. However, biometrics has now been removed and a revised app was issued to district authorities on Tuesday.

The field surveyors appointed by the district administrations, including teachers, junior volunteers and Group C staff, can enter data using the app on a tablet.

Vinay Pratap Singh, Gurgaon deputy commissioner, said, "We have decided to employ 828 enumerators across the district. Haryana Jan Seva Survey. Group C staff have been roped in and will be paid for conducting the survey."

Instead of biometric verification of face and fingerprints, surveyors will ask for Aadhaar number of residents. They would also ask for bank account details and those who don't have one have to name a bank they would prefer to open an account in. Benefits under welfare schemes will be transferred directly to these accounts.

The enumeration blocks have been decided based on the national population register. "There will be one supervisor for every five enumerators. All the enumerators would be issued identity cards," said Chahal. "We have received the new guidelines and will conduct a pilot survey. The final survey will be conducted on the basis of the feedback about the app from the pilot survey," said Chahal.

However, Haryana School Teachers Association (HSTA) on Monday protested against the plan to assign the survey work to teachers. The protest was chaired by HSTA district head Subhash Yadav and operations secretary Jaswinder.

HSTA state secretary Satyanarayan Yadav said, "Someone has to decide what we need to do. Are we recruited to teach in schools or to conduct surveys? If the government is so keen to conduct a survey, they should hire a private survey agency to do it."

Subhash Yadav, a teacher, said, "No teacher will do this and if the administration forces this upon us, it should brace itself for a tremendous movement against the same."

Tarun Suhag, president of primary teachers' association, Gurgaon, said, "The administration is saying that tablets will be given to us for this survey and we will be trained on how to use a tab. Why should we attend such classes? This is a violation of RTE Act. In this Act, it is clearly mentioned that teachers have to perform poll duties and no other extra work. It doesn't say we have to go from house to house to conduct surveys. If the government doesn't take this order back, we'll take it to the court."

However, Vinay Pratap Singh, city deputy commissioner, said, "The survey has been ordered by the state government and is for better delivery of services to people. All departments need to be involved in this exercise. We are choosing teachers but we will ensure that classes are not affected."