Bengaluru, Sep 27 (IANS) Former BJP National General Secretary and current member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, C.T. Ravi has questioned whether Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has truly understood the issues faced by the enumerator teachers, after allegedly threatening them.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, he said: “The Chief Minister has threatened action if the Socio-Economic and Academic survey, known as caste census, is not conducted. But what steps has CM Siddaramaiah taken to address the difficulties faced by the enumerators?”

He pointed out that: “The app provided is problematic and data cannot be uploaded properly. There are issues with receiving OTPs (One-Time Passwords). Serial numbers for houses have not been given properly – one house is listed in one place, while the next is somewhere else. Teachers from one school have been assigned to distant areas, leading to further complications.

“If you speak with the teachers, you will understand the real problems,” he added, stating that he has written a letter to the Chief Minister regarding this.

“To conduct such a massive survey, preparatory steps are essential. Proper training should have been given. A pilot survey should have been conducted in some areas beforehand to identify and resolve potential problems,” said C.T. Ravi.

He added that: “After the pilot programme, the survey model should have been finalized and then scaled up. Here, however, no pilot programme was done, and adequate training was not provided. Instead of addressing these shortcomings, the government is resorting to threats. Even locating a house in the UHID (Unique Household ID) system is a challenge.”

“In regions like hill stations and forested areas, network issues are severe. Enumerators are expected to collect answers for 60 questions per household, but many families lack the patience to answer all of them, leading to more difficulties.”

“The system often shows ‘application upload failed’. In some places, female teachers going alone to households is creating safety and social challenges,” he pointed out.

“It’s taking 1.5 to 2 hours per application, which is causing mental stress and eye strain. There are also complaints of health issues among those doing the survey, ” he said.

“Not everyone is technically skilled. There are places where technical knowledge of mobile usage is lacking, ” he said.

“If there are 4-5 people in one household, it takes up to 2 to 2.5 hours. Realistically, only 6 to 8 households can be covered in a day. The assignment of extra households must be reviewed,” he added.

“There are also issues with OTP not being received. All these problems need to be resolved,” he urged.

–IANS

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