MoSPI to Hire 10,000 Contract Staff for Data Collection
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is set to recruit nearly 10,000 contractual workers, significantly increasing its workforce to address the rising demand for data collection. The ministry’s decision comes amid challenges like a high attrition rate of over 40% among Junior Statistical Officers (JSOs) and an increasing number of surveys conducted by the National Statistics Office’s Field Operations Divisions (FOD).
According to tender documents, MoSPI aims to hire approximately 9,888 personnel, including survey supervisors and enumerators, to assist with various data collection tasks. This recruitment effort is backed by an estimated budget of around Rs 1,000 crore. Currently, the ministry has about 5,500 contract workers, whose terms are set to end on March 31.
One of the key roles in this recruitment drive is to find local residents who are fluent in regional languages. MoSPI has acknowledged that language barriers and the unavailability of local staff have hindered effective data collection. The ministry has proposed hiring "local educated residents" to improve the quality and accuracy of the data collected through door-to-door surveys.
In an attempt to modernize its workforce, MoSPI has renamed its field staff. Survey enumerators will now be known as ‘Sankhya Mitra,’ while survey supervisors will be called ‘Sankhya Supervisor.’ This change reflects the ministry's commitment to enhancing the efficiency of data collection processes.
However, this plan to nearly double the number of contract staff has drawn criticism. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance previously labeled such staffing solutions as “stopgap arrangements.” They emphasized that relying on contractual workers does not adequately address the ongoing manpower shortage. The committee recommended that MoSPI prioritize the recruitment of regular field staff to ensure the quality of data collection is not compromised.
As of January 1, there were over 500 positions for Junior and Senior Statistical Officers left vacant, representing about 12% of the total authorized strength. The lack of permanent staff underscores the urgent need for MoSPI to take concrete steps to stabilize its workforce and improve data collection quality across India.
