Health and nutrition access
Distance to health posts, anganwadi enrolment, and whether households hold health scheme cards, recorded without collecting medical details.
Services · Urban government
Hutment-level records that hold up when eligibility is contested
A biometric survey of slum dwellers decides who is counted for rehabilitation, housing and services, so every record will eventually be questioned. Bharat Survey supports slum rehabilitation authorities, municipal corporations and urban development departments with door-to-door hutment surveys: a unique number painted and recorded for each structure, GPS and photo evidence, socio-economic household schedules, and biometric capture through certified device partners where the terms of reference require it.
- Unique hutment number on structure and record
- GPS, photo and timestamp on every visit
- Socio-economic schedule per household
- Biometric capture via certified partner devices
3,000
Target homes
2,184
Visits
1,962
Enumerated
1,871
Verified
Daily verified recordsLast 12 days
Quality
Accepted1871
In review64
Outside area19
Weak signal8
Coverage · by block
Block A62%
Block B48%
Block C31%
Block D24%
Survey 5/6 · Photo
Photo of a public issue
Camera · no faces
5 MB → 210 KB · with location/time
SkipTake photo
Ram Kumar · shift on
26.8467 N · 80.9462 E · ±12 m
14
Received
12
Accepted
1
Review
1
Outside
Hutment numberingGeo-referenced base mapHousehold socio-economic dataEligibility evidenceWard-wise progressGrievance re-visitsOffline Android appPhoto and GPS evidence
The problem
Slum surveys are rarely neutral exercises for the people being surveyed. The record often decides eligibility for a rehabilitation tenement, a housing subsidy or protection from eviction. That means families who were absent on survey day, tenants versus structure owners, upper-floor occupants and newly arrived households all become disputes later. Paper registers with a surveyor's signature do not survive that scrutiny well.
The fix is not more pages in the register. It is evidence attached to each structure at the moment of the visit: where the enumerator stood, when, what the structure looked like, who answered, and whether the household was re-visited if nobody was home. Our slum survey services are built around that evidence trail.
Method
The order matters. Numbering and mapping come before household interviews, so no structure is surveyed twice or missed.
- 01
Boundary and base map
The slum pocket boundary from the authority's notification is loaded on the map. Structures are identified on satellite imagery or a drone base map supplied by the authority or its mapping partner.Week 1Ram Kumar · shift on26.8467 N · 80.9462 E · ±12 m14Received12Accepted1Review1Outside - 02
Structure numbering
Each hutment gets a unique number painted on the structure and recorded in the app with GPS and a photo. Multi-storey and shared structures get sub-numbers per household.Week 1–2Survey 5/6 · PhotoPhoto of a public issueCamera · no faces5 MB → 210 KB · with location/timeSkipTake photo - 03
Household schedule
Enumerators complete the socio-economic schedule: members, tenure, occupation, income band, services, documents shown. Absent households get planned re-visits at different times of day.Week 2–63,000Target homes2,184Visits1,962Enumerated1,871VerifiedDaily verified recordsLast 12 days - 04
Biometric capture
Where required, fingerprints or photographs of the head of household are captured on certified devices supplied by a licensed partner, linked to the hutment number. We do not do Aadhaar eKYC without a licensed partner.With household visitHome #17 · Intro & consentHello, I am Ram Kumar. This survey is run by Sample Organisation. Purpose: to learn about amenities in your area. It is voluntary, and you can say no at any time.
Consent v2 · 09:44Agreed — start surveyDeclined - 05
Verification and draft list
Supervisors re-visit a share of structures, then a draft list is displayed for objections. Corrections are logged with the reason, not overwritten.Week 6–8Location evidenceSurvey #BS-0412- In areaInside approx. boundary
- Accuracy±12 m
- Time09:42 · fresh fix
- Mock GPSNot detected
- Interview length11 min
Added to accepted count
Ram Kumar · shift on
26.8467 N · 80.9462 E · ±12 m
14
Received
12
Accepted
1
Review
1
Outside
Survey 5/6 · Photo
Photo of a public issue
Camera · no faces
5 MB → 210 KB · with location/time
SkipTake photo
3,000
Target homes
2,184
Visits
1,962
Enumerated
1,871
Verified
Daily verified recordsLast 12 days
Home #17 · Intro & consent
Hello, I am Ram Kumar. This survey is run by Sample Organisation. Purpose: to learn about amenities in your area. It is voluntary, and you can say no at any time.
Consent v2 · 09:44
Agreed — start surveyDeclined
Location evidence
Survey #BS-0412
- In areaInside approx. boundary
- Accuracy±12 m
- Time09:42 · fresh fix
- Mock GPSNot detected
- Interview length11 min
Added to accepted count
Mapping
A list without a map cannot resolve a boundary dispute. A map without household data cannot plan rehabilitation. The two have to share one ID.
Structure points tied to the base map
Every structure is a point or polygon on the geo-referenced base map, carrying the same number as the household record. Planners can filter by tenure, floor, family size or service access and see where those households sit.
We work on base maps provided by the authority or its GIS partner and do not claim to produce survey-grade cadastral maps ourselves.
- Same ID on map and record
- Export for the authority's GIS
- Ward and pocket boundaries
Ram Kumar · shift on
26.8467 N · 80.9462 E · ±12 m
14
Received
12
Accepted
1
Review
1
Outside
Progress you can see by pocket
Ward officers see structures numbered, households surveyed, households absent and re-visits pending, pocket by pocket, every day that field teams sync.
- Daily sync
- Absent-household queue
- Supervisor notes
3,000
Target homes
2,184
Visits
1,962
Enumerated
1,871
Verified
Daily verified recordsLast 12 days
Quality
Accepted1871
In review64
Outside area19
Weak signal8
Coverage · by block
Block A62%
Block B48%
Block C31%
Block D24%
Identity of a structure
Format
One number, one structure
A number combining ward, pocket and serial. It is painted on the structure and never reused, even if the structure is demolished later.
Households
Sub-numbers for sharing
Where several families live in one structure or on upper floors, each household gets a suffix linked to the parent structure number.
Audit
Changes are logged
If a number is corrected during objections, the old value, new value, reason and officer are stored. Nothing is silently edited.
What we believe about eligibility records
Planning
The slum-free city plan of action approach, introduced under the Rajiv Awas Yojana guidelines, asked cities to survey every slum, build a slum MIS linked to GIS maps, and then choose in-situ upgrading, redevelopment or relocation pocket by pocket. The same data structure still suits current housing and rehabilitation planning, including PMAY-Urban 2.0 demand assessment.
What a plan of action needs from the survey
Tenure status, land ownership of the pocket, hazard exposure, existing infrastructure, household size and income bands. Collect these consistently across all pockets and the plan can compare them; collect them differently per ward and it cannot.
- Pocket-level profile: land owner, hazards, services
- Household-level profile: tenure, members, income band
- Structure-level profile: material, floors, use
- Consistent codes across the whole city
Deliverables
- Numbered structure register
- Household socio-economic dataset
- GIS layer export
- Pocket profiles
- Draft eligibility list with evidence links
- Objection log
Beyond housing
The same visit can collect what social departments need, if it is planned at the start.
Children and schooling
School attendance by age band and reasons for dropping out, useful for education and child protection planning.
Livelihood and skills
Occupation, work location and interest in training, so livelihood programmes can be placed where people actually live.
Not the right fit if
- Survey-grade cadastral or legal land surveys
- Aadhaar eKYC without a licensed partner
- Deciding eligibility (that stays with the authority)
- Drone mapping without the authority's mapping partner
A good fit if
- Hutment numbering with GPS and photos
- Household socio-economic schedules
- Biometric capture through certified partner devices
- Evidence-linked draft lists and objection logs
Government solutions
Household, property and scheme surveys for departments and ULBs.
Learn moreसरकारी सर्वे (हिंदी)
Government survey services in Hindi.
Learn moreGeM procurement
How survey services are usually procured.
Learn moreEmpanelment
What empanelment processes ask for.
Learn moreThird party evaluation
Independent evaluation of housing and urban schemes.
Learn moreFAQ
Straight answers to the questions people ask most about this topic.
What is a biometric survey of slum dwellers?
It is a door-to-door survey of every structure in a notified slum that records household details and captures a biometric identifier, such as fingerprints or a photograph, so eligibility for rehabilitation can later be matched to the right person. Biometric capture is done on certified devices through a licensed partner.
How long does a slum survey take?
It depends on the number of structures, density and how many households are absent. Numbering and mapping usually take the first one to two weeks, household schedules the longest share, and verification plus draft list display follow. We give a pocket-wise timeline in the proposal.
What happens if a household is not home?
The structure is still numbered and photographed. The household goes into a re-visit queue with attempts at different times of day, and each attempt is logged with GPS and time, so the authority can see the effort made.
Who owns the data from the survey?
The commissioning authority. Data residency, retention and access rules are stated in writing in each proposal, and raw data plus codebooks are handed over at the end of the assignment.
India Nationwide, Hindi-first
Share the number of pockets, approximate structures and the schedule format. We will propose a numbering scheme, timeline and quotation.