KOCHI: In the hurry-scurry to make it a paperless exercise, the socio-economic caste census, kicked off in the state, is being carried out with underqualified data entry operators. The authorities are forced to recruit Plus-Two students against the criterion which demands a degree qualification with adequate data entry knowledge.Nimi Jerome, Kudumbashree Unnathi IT consortium unit vice-president who is in charge of recruitments for the census in the district, said they are not recruiting children for the purpose. But the existing scenario defies their arguments.Most of the data entry operators (DOs), which the authorities recruited, have scant knowledge in data entry.When ‘Express’ caught up with some of the enumerators, most of them replied that they are devoid of data operators.“I did not get one and the authorities have asked to enroll any of my kin as DO. As I had no other option, I enlisted my husband for the role,” said Sajitha, an enumerator. She said that her husband did not have much knowledge in computers. This is the case with most of the enumerators who came at the training office at Kochi.Akhil, a Class X student, was also enrolled as a data entry operator. His mother said the boy got himself enrolled, as directed by one of his teachers, besides canvassing his classmates.“Since he is good in computer, his teacher might have thought it would serve the purpose. Besides, we thought he could use his vacation judiciously by undertaking this job,” she said. The census is undertaken after categorising the houses as an enumeration block, consisting of 100 to 125 houses.An enumerator will be given a maximum of four blocks. The data entry operator will accompany the enumerator as the tabulation will be done using tablet PC. These currently appointed DOs have no knowledge on how to work in the field. “I do not know anything about that. I was asked to come here for recruitment by my mom who is a councillor,” said Monu, who is awaiting his Plus Two results.The authority seems to be quite oblivious of the fact that this is the first of its kind in the country, post independence. The last-minute updation in the software used for tabulation is also creating problems.The officials of Rural stores which is the service provider for ITI, Palakkad, that provides technical assistance said that they are helpless in this regard. “We do not have any other go, if we there are any bugs in it,” said Ranjit Shivapalan, State Coordinator, Rural Stores.(Some names have been changed)
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