Survey to create database of ‘educated jobless’ in Kochi

The idea is to create a database and use it as a platform for bringing together potential employers and employees from diverse fields

A massive week-long household survey titled, 'My Job My Pride', under the joint aegis of the Kudumbashree Mission and the Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission and anchored by local bodies is set to be held across the district in May.

The initiative is aimed at creating a comprehensive database of the educated jobless in the district aged between 18 to 59 years using a mobile application called Jalakam. The door-to-door campaign will be held between May 8 and 15 with the help of 5,383 trained enumerators drafted in from the Area Development Society level.

“Details including age, gender, area of expertise, and willingness to work will be collected using the application. The idea is to create a database and use it as a platform for bringing together potential employers and employees from diverse fields. Skill enhancement training will also be imparted where needed,” said S. Renjini, Kudumbashree district mission coordinator.

Three master resource persons for the district have already been trained by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration while training for the 102 district-level resource persons for as many Community Development Societies (CDSs) has also been completed. They will now in turn train the over 5000 enumerators chosen from among the members of Kudumbashree or its auxiliary groups or neighbourhood groups with a minimum qualification of plus two being major criteria.

“Familiarity with smartphones is one of the essential qualifications of the enumerators. One enumerator each will be assigned for 150 households in rural areas and 200 in urban areas. The application for the survey is being fine-tuned and each enumerator would be made to undertake a trial survey of a single household before they are fully deployed,” said Ms. Renjini.

Propagating the objectives and activities of the Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission is among the many objectives of the survey. For those households where members are reluctant to take part in the survey, the enumerators have been instructed not to insist on giving details.

In remote and inaccessible areas, master resource persons or CDS-level district resource persons could be deployed for the survey with arrangements for their mobility for which funds would be made available under the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council.