MCC begins H2H mobile app survey on school dropouts

Following reports pointing an increase in the number of child labourers due to outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the Mysuru City Corporation, in association with the Department of Public Instruction and Women and Child Development have launched a house-to-house mobile app survey to identify the school dropouts in Mysuru city.

It was complained that the considerable rise in the number of school dropouts was due to prolonged closure of schools due to Covid crisis, and also lack of access to online education and devices.

The survey is being carried out with the mobile App 'Karnataka H2H Children Survey', developed by the Centre for e-Governance, Government of Karnataka. The survey will collect data of children aged between six and 14 years, and record the number of school dropouts. It was launched on January 16 and will continue till February 14, 2021. The data collected will be posted on the MCC website.

Speaking to DH, MCC Zone 6 Commissioner Ranjith Kumar said that initially, the survey is being conducted at Zone 6,7 and 8 and will be extended to all zones later. Several volunteers and Revenue department officials have been provided training. With the help of the mobile app, which is available at the Karnataka Government App Store, door-to-door survey will be conducted to find any school dropouts.

"Besides, this will also be an exercise to create awareness among the people on the importance of education. The people should extend cooperation to the visiting officials and provide all the necessary information," he appealed.

Revenue officer J Asha said, "Once the ration card data is fed on the mobile app, it gives complete details of the family members, and it is easy to identify the dropouts. Similarly, the Education department also provides the Aadhaar number of the students to help the survey, and bring them back to schools."

Earlier, the Department of Public Instruction alone used to conduct the survey and identify the school dropouts. As it was not able to get total results, now the survey is being conducted with the participation of Mysuru City Corporation.

This exercise has gained significance because there were several reports that students, especially in rural areas, have dropped out of school in the last nine months of the pandemic and started working to support their families.