Fieldworkers and their supervisors, tasked with carrying out the crucial Social and Educational Survey 2025 in Karnataka’s remote rural areas, particularly the scenic but challenging Malnad region, are encountering substantial obstacles. These issues range from unreliable network connectivity and technical glitches within their mobile applications to the sheer difficulty of physically locating and collecting data from assigned families.
Each enumerator is responsible for surveying 150 households, with one supervisor overseeing every 20 enumerators. The survey relies on unique household identification numbers (UHIDs) linked to electricity consumers, with stickers placed on meters to guide the teams. However, this system has proven flawed; many stickers are found on meters belonging to government offices, libraries, anganwadis, or even pump sets on farmland, where no families reside. Supervisors are left with the demanding job of verifying these cases in person and updating the system.
Application Troubles
Enumerators must juggle three distinct mobile applications: the main KSCBC Survey app, Prutha (for UHID tracking), and a facial recognition app. While ration card details can streamline the process by auto-populating family names, using Aadhaar cards often requires waiting for an OTP (One-Time Password), leading to delays. If OTP generation is slow, enumerators resort to taking a family member’s photo for facial recognition, but even this app is proving sluggish, further hampering progress.
Persistent Network Woes
The most significant impediment for survey teams in rural areas remains the erratic and often absent mobile network. One enumerator in Hosanagara taluk, assigned 130 households, reported managing to submit details for only six families in the first four days. “On Friday, I managed to complete 11 families. I could have done so much more if the network were stable. I had to repeatedly wait for OTPs, which considerably slowed down the entire process,” he explained. Many fieldworkers have observed that the network is marginally better during morning and evening hours, making these their preferred times for visiting households, despite the long hours.