Foot soldiers and challenges
It is 7.30 pm and Naveen Noudiyal is on his fifth and last assignment for the day. He was assigned around 15 houses, but had to reschedule many due to various reasons, including non-availability of applicants. In some cases, filling up applications takes more time than expected as not everyone keeps requisite documents ready.
Naveen patiently waits outside an applicant’s house in East of Kailash. The applicant, who did not wish to be identified, ushers in Naveen to his spacious living room. Halfway through the formalities to get a marriage certificate, Naveen wants to know the date of birth of the wife. The woman hesitantly shares the date and looks at her husband. “What? I remember that your birthday is in October,” he says, and the couple break into a laugh. Next, there’s a small hitch. The call centre executive, who attended the applicant’s call, did not tell him that identity proofs of two witnesses are required. Naveen throws a helpless look. Meanwhile, the couple somehow manage two witness proofs, make the payment and schedule their appointment in the registrar’s office.
At the other end of the city, in Rohini, Nikhil reaches applicant Deepika Garg’s house. She had applied to get her address in her vehicle registration certificate corrected. On reaching, Nikhil realises that the call centre executive had not shared an application number, required for this purpose, with Garg. Nikhil rings up the call centre and tries explaining it to the operator, but the call is abruptly disconnected from the other end. He apologises to the applicant and “discards” the service request, urging her to apply again.
Among the few recurring issues that a ground check of the scheme threw up, incomplete information sharing by call centre executives was a prominent one. The CM’s advisor said that based on feedback, they have decided to start an SMS service through which applicants will receive a message with a list of original documents that need to be made available to the sahayaks.
The sahayaks start their work shift at 8 am every day, which stretches till 10 pm. Distributed into multiple groups managed by supervisors, they are allotted areas based on pin codes. They underwent a two-day training on soft skills in handling customer service, operating tablets, navigating government websites and managing payments, Bandopadhyay said.
“Hiring criteria for mobile sahayaks is minimum Class XII pass and knowledge and familiarity with operating a computer. They must hold a valid driver’s (2-wheeler) licence, vehicle insurance and valid RC book. On hiring, all sahayaks undergo a thorough background and police verification process. Mobile sahayaks get one weekly off,” he added.
While Nikhil, who has earlier worked with a BPO, completed his graduation from Delhi University’s School of Open Learning, Naveen did his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Andrews Ganj. The two aren’t satisfied with the salary they take home, which is around Rs 16,000 per month, but are excited about their jobs.
“Currently, challenges include crashing of government sites. Their capacity needs to be increased as demand has grown manifold. Also, the tablets have the SIM card of only one service provider. SIMs of multiple companies will ensure seamless connectivity as the coverage areas of all companies are not uniform,” Nikhil said.
Nearly every applicant wants to know if they can get their Aadhaar card, PAN, or passport made through a similar procedure, and sahayaks frequently explain how those services come under the Centre and not the Delhi government.
Privacy and security
On concerns that the scheme amounts to privatising government services, Mohan said: “The government has large procedural issues. It does not have the capacity to execute this, which would involve creation of thousands of new posts. There is an acute lack of resources and that is why a reputed and experienced company was roped in.”
VFS’s Bandopadhyay said they are running the service as per the government’s “stringent requirements” and under its direct supervision and control. “In general, as an organisation, we firmly believe in the huge benefit of the Public-Private-Partnership model in ensuring the highest level of public services in the most efficient and secure manner,” he said.
Mohan said the service-level agreement entered into with VFS is aimed at fixing accountability at every level and there are a set of performance indicators that the company has to meet. There are provisions of fines in cases of delays or lapses, he said.
On the part of VFS, apart from background checks and a police verification process for sahayaks, there are multiple layers of checks to prevent misuse of such a large amount of data, including documents and pictures, being gathered by the sahayaks on their tablets from people.
“Once the sahayaks log in through the doorstep app, they and their tablets are tracked and monitored at the back-office level. Even battery and signal status of the tabs can be checked remotely. Each service is ‘time mapped’. Any deviation from the standard turnaround time will trigger a notification at the supervisor level. The sahayaks have no direct contact with the applicants till they arrive at their choice of service delivery location. Also, all requests and documents are routed through supervisors only. The telephone numbers are masked,” Bandopadhyay said.
Nikhil said the documents collected cannot be shared as services and features like WhatsApp, SHAREit and Bluetooth are disabled. Also, only selected government portals can be accessed through them, and once the documents are uploaded, they get blurred in the device and later get automatically deleted. The tablets do not have memory cards.
Around 10 pm, Naveen parks his scooty outside Nehru Place Metro station. He goes through the app one last time, before logging out for the day. Asked if he finds the work hours a little too punishing, Naveen nods, before proudly adding, “Maine apne area mein sabse zyada cases kiye hai (I am handling the most number of cases in my area).” He hopes to get promoted to the post of a supervisor one day.
Here’s how Delhi govt’s doorstep delivery scheme works
1. A person dials 1076, the call centre, to avail services
2. Call centre executive notes down basic details of the person
3. Call centre informs the person about the documents required and the payment to be made for the service
4. Call centre executive books an appointment as per the person’s convenience
5. Mobile sahayak reaches the doorstep of the person
6. Mobile sahayak confirms the service request and enters the details of the citizen in the portal. He also uploads documents on the portal
7. Payment for the service made by the citizen to the mobile sahayak
8. Person gets a confirmation SMS with details of the service
9. The submitted application is forwarded to the department concerned. Govt department takes a decision
10. On service completion, certificate or the physical document is delivered to the doorstep of the citizen by the mobile sahayak