The Karnataka government is mulling over maintaining a health-related database of all its residents. In a statement released on Monday, Karnataka Minister for Medical Education, Dr K Sudhakar, said that the Health Register would be maintained to keep a check on all the health issues that its residents face.
The survey will be piloted in Chikkaballapura, the constituency of Dr K Sudhakar. Minister Sudhakar held a meeting with officials attached with the Chikkaballapur Deputy Commissioner's office. However, the district administration did not clarify the parameters of the survey.
According to Chikkaballapura district officials, the survey has already begun in Gauribidanur taluk. “We went door to door in all 31 wards. We asked people about their health-related ailments. We wanted to see how many senior citizens, children and patients with high-risk categories are there. When we found any symptoms, we took swab samples,” a senior official with the district administration said.
He said that the survey was being conducted to determine whether there is community spread. So far, he says that they found no such evidence in Gauribidanur. The survey will now be conducted in Chikkaballapura taluk. TNM was not able to procure a copy of the questionnaire at the time of writing.
After the meeting, Minster Sudhakar announced that officials at various primary health centres, the Revenue Department, the Education Department and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers would conduct a survey of the health-related ailments of its residents.
The state government claimed that the data collected would be used to implement “citizen-centric schemes,” though further details were not immediately available.
This comes in the wake of the Union government making it mandatory for employees of the public and private sector to download the Arogya Setu app. Allegations of invasion of an individual's right to privacy have risen.
Speaking to TNM, Vinay Sreenivasa, a lawyer with Alternative Law Forum, said that unless the government issues an order regarding the specification of the survey, we cannot determine what laws it can violate.
“They will have to give specifics about what kind of personal information people are to be asked. The government cannot begin a survey without giving specifics and issuing a government order. That would be a violation of norms,” he said.