Getting a Job Card….

Every wage seeking family has to give an application form to the Village Secretary for a “Job Card”. The Pilot Team offered to experiment with different forms and designs of application form and help the finalization of application form and job card. But the CRD team indicated that the application forms and job cards are already designed by CRD and it is not necessary to “test” different designs. But the CRD team itself had to design and redesign the application form and Job Card several times during this time.

Many forms of Application Forms:

Originally, it was thought that the wage seeking family could apply for a job card even on a blank white page. Only requirement was some basic details of the family that should be mentioned in the application form. To facilitate this, DWMA, RR District supplied the format developed by CRD to the Pilot Team. This application form was distributed to the villagers during the awareness campaign, in Parigi villages. While the completed applications are pouring in, the format of the application changed to accommodate the data needs (such as SHG membership, Disabled Members and so on) and administrative requirements (such as formal receipts to be issued by Secretary, Grama Panchayati) of the project. These changes occurred 3 times during one and half month. As a result, the secretaries had to re-collect the applications with complete details. This had its own impact on the quality and completeness of the data. Since the completed applications forms are already received by 1^st Feb 2006, the receipts are not given to the applicants. Secretaries are maintaining the register on the list of application forms at Grama Panchayati office.

“Job Card” is an entry pass of a wage seeker in the APREGS. There are typically four stages in the process of getting a “Job Card”.

Stage	Description
▪ Receiving Application	▪ A family completes the application form and submits to the Village Secretary. Village Secretary submits the completed application form to the Computer Unit, Mandal Development Officer.
▪ Data Entry	▪ Data Entry Operator enters the details of the application in the specially designed software package (by Tata Consulting Services, Hyderabad) and takes a print out of the “Job Card” of the applicant family.
▪ Print out
▪ Distribution in the village	▪ Job Cards are distributed in the village to respective applicant family.

The details of actual process that took place in the Pilot are briefly mentioned here.

Stage 1: Receiving Application
What happened?	Issues/ Concerns
▪ As a result of intense communication campaign, 4225 applications are received at MDO office, by 1^st Feb 2006. ▪ In one of the review meetings at Parigi, the data gaps in these applications are observed. The format of application also changed several times during this stage (Refer to the section on “Many forms of Application Form”). ▪ Some details in the application form are added at latter point of time (Membership in SHG and Disabled Persons). Secretaries were asked to include this data in the application forms and submit the revised application forms. ▪ It was decided that Secretaries should verify the completed applications before passing them to the Data Operator. Dates were also fixed. But the secretaries did a cursory job of this. Some secretaries did not even do this. ▪ Pilot Team brought this issue to the Secretaries and their response was luke warm.	▪ Incomplete Data – Caste, relationships, family head, age. ▪ Details of Indira Avas Yojana, Land Details (Extent of land), Names of SHG (in which is these family members are member). ▪ Data on disabled is fairly weak, which indicates that disabled persons are almost negligible in the completed forms (which is difficult to believe).
	Suggestions
	▪ Training of secretaries/ Field Assistants on the process of completing application forms. ▪ Data verification before entering into the computer is a must. ▪ Since the application forms are now final, remaining mandals may not have the same issues that Pilot faced.
Stage 2 & 3: Data Entry and Print Out
What happened?	Issues and Concerns
▪ Originally TCS designed a software package, which automatically translates the data in English into Telugu print out. But the print out in Telugu was not proper. In fact, it was very funny and amusing to read and comprehend the print outs in Telugu. (See the First Version Output of Job Card) Based on the feedback, TCS changed the soft ware. Now part of the data entry is being done using phonetic fonts. (e.g. Address is being typed using English phonetic fonts, but the output will be in Telugu script). As a result, the time taken for data entry of each application form increased from two minutes to three minutes. ▪ There is one data entry operator deputed by DWMA, RR District in MDO, Parigi Office. The data entry of application forms actually started from 1^st Feb 2006 onwards. During, 2^nd Feb to 5^th Feb 2006, 10 cards per village were distributed in the Pilot villages. After completing this event, the real process data entry began (6^th to 21^st Feb 2006). ▪ He takes 3 minutes per application form. He was able to complete data entry of 2200 application forms so far.	▪ While entering the data, Pilot Team and Data Entry operator found several gaps in the application forms. The team waited for secretaries for long for completing application forms. Out of 22, 7 secretaries could complete the data forms. About 500 forms are improved in this process. Even in this process, secretaries picked up the applications randomly and made corrections. ▪ Meanwhile, the pressure on the team increased to complete the data entry process. Data Entry Operator entered the remaining forms without the data verification by the Secretary. ▪ The current batch of Job Cards could have incomplete data in the database of the program. There may be a need for re-entering the data again.
▪ Print out	Suggestions
▪ Initially very thick cards are used for Job Cards. The printer is not compatible with these thick cards. Based on this feed back from the Data Entry Operator at MDO office, the thickness of cards is reduced. ▪ Till 19^th Feb 2006, about 600 Job Cards are issued. Later on 1400 cards are printed.	▪ Data entry of about 120 (max) applications could be completed per day. ▪ Depending on the volume of work, it is good to have a team of data entry persons rather than one person.
Stage 4: Distribution in the village
What happened?	▪ Issues and Concerns
▪ The printed Job Cards are to be pinned to a book and they are ready for distribution. ▪ As mentioned earlier, 10 cards per village were distributed in the Pilot mandal, during, 2^nd Feb to 5^th Feb 2006. ▪ Later on, 5 Secretaries collected the printed cards from the MDO office and distributed to the villagers. ▪ Field Assistants are making door-to-door visits for distributing the job cards.	▪ The booklets are currently out of stock in Parigi Mandal. So about 800 Job Cards are still with MDO office. They need to be distributed in the villages.