CHENNAI: Residents who are not willing to share personal information for the Unga Kanava Sollunga (UKS) survey should not be compelled, the State government instructed field workers engaged in the exercise. In such cases, the surveyors have been asked to skip such households and move on to the next one, officials said.
As part of the UKS survey, which is being conducted to assess and evaluate the reach and impact of government welfare schemes, around 55,000 field workers visit 30 households each a day with a four-page questionnaire seeking details on welfare schemes availed, feedback on benefits, and residents' aspirations for the State.
The hesitation that many surveyors are encountering mostly deal with personal information such as mobile phone numbers, ration card details, and caste category. "When we ask for these details, people hesitate to share them. As a result, we are unable to complete the survey in some houses," a field worker said.
When asked, a senior official said no household should be forced to participate. "If people do not want to give their details or data, the field staff should skip that house and proceed to the next one," the official said.
The survey aims to cover around 1.91 crore households, based on beneficiary data available with the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA). As per TNeGA records, Tamil Nadu has 2.26 crore ration cards, including 89.03 lakh urban and 1.37 crore rural cards. Of these, 1.57 crore households – comprising 53.07 lakh urban and 1.04 crore rural households – are beneficiaries of various government schemes.
In an official order, the government said the survey would be conducted across 1,90,98,746 households by 55,706 Self-Help Group (SHG) members, assisted by 17,378 supervisors and master trainers. The exercise includes scheme-beneficiary households in urban areas and ration card–holding households in rural areas.
The total cost of the survey is estimated at Rs 43.52 crore, including Rs 21 crore allocated to the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women (TNCDW), officials said.