CHENNAI: Government school teachers have said employing them to collect data for the National Population Register (NPR) may take away time from school hours. The State government is set to begin data collection from April 1. The teachers have suggested the government make use of unemployed youth for the purpose. The government has asked them to collect information based on 12 kinds of documents including Aadhaar, Voter ID, PAN card, birth certificate, ration card, bank passbook, passport, driver’s license, school marksheets, TNEB card, cooking gas card and property documents.
In order to do this, government staff, including teachers, will have to go door-to-door to collect relevant information. “In a day, we can go to a maximum of 10 houses. Because invariably we will end up spending at least half an hour in each house,” said PK Ilamaran, the leader of the Tamil Nadu Government School Teachers Association.
He added that the data collection work for previous census went on for five months. “This means that teachers will not be able to focus on students at the start of the academic year.”
Ilamaran suggested that instead of using teachers, the government utilise unemployed graduates and educated housewives. “There are many who will be happy to take up even a part-time job. Such people should be used,” he said.