Bengaluru: The Socio-Economic and Educational Survey began in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, on Saturday. However, in some locations, enumerators protested over the areas assigned to them.
It should be noted that 17,500 government employees from various departments have been appointed as enumerators for the survey. The survey will cover over 50.57 lakh households in the Greater Bengaluru area, which comprises five municipal corporations. Each enumerator has been assigned a target of covering 15-20 households per day.
On the first day of the survey, several enumerators protested at the GBA’s Malleswaram office. They claimed that they were assigned remote areas for the survey, ignoring the 10 options they had given before the survey.
Mahesh, an enumerator, said, “Before the survey began, we were asked to specify our priority areas, and accordingly, we gave 10 options. But none of these were considered, and we were asked to survey remote areas.”
Some enumerators have requested leave from the survey due to health reasons, while others have expressed their inability to cover 15-10 households in a day. Another enumerator, Manjunath, said, “Each household will have to answer 60 questions, and this will take at least an hour. Therefore, covering 15 households in a day is difficult.”
The survey, which began on September 22nd, has already covered 65% of households across the state, excluding Bengaluru. The survey was originally scheduled to end by October 7th, but given that 40% of households still need to be covered, the deadline is expected to be extended by at least 10 days.
