Survey to determine major causes of disability after census

Published March 18, 2017
ENUMERATORS along with army troops collect data in the far-off district of Awaran on Friday. Census is also under way in the militancy-hit Mashkey area of the district.—APP
ENUMERATORS along with army troops collect data in the far-off district of Awaran on Friday. Census is also under way in the militancy-hit Mashkey area of the district.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Three new data entry codes for the disabled have been introduced in the population count form and a follow-up survey will be held after the census to determine major causes of disability in the country, Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa said on Friday.

The announcement came following Supreme Court directions to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) which was asked to include separate codes for the disabled in the ongoing count. The data will help chart the total number of healthy and unhealthy people in the country.

“We have conveyed to enumeration officers all over Pakistan to manually include in Form 2-A, in the ‘sex’ column, three additional codes: ‘4’ for disabled man, ‘5’ for disabled woman and ‘6’ for disabled transgender,” Mr Bajwa said, while addressing a press conference.


Headcount to begin today


The requisite changes were made to the computer tabulation system as well, he said. The proposed survey will help collect data about the causes of disability, including data on fertility, education and employment, etc.

The survey would cost Rs18.5 billion, he said, of which, Rs6bn would be spent on army personnel and a similar amount on the PBS staff. The remaining Rs6.5bn would be spent on providing transportation. Provinces would share the cost of the survey with the federal government, Mr Bajwa said.

In the first phase of the census, the government has kicked off house listing and population headcount in 63 districts. The census team will comprise two people — a civil enumerator and a military person. Each census team has been assigned two blocks.

A block has 200 to 250 houses on average. Enumerators carried out house listing in the first three days. From Saturday onwards, the headcount will begin for 10 days. A day will be spent counting homeless people, and another day to return the data collected.

A similar exercise will be carried out for the second bloc from March 31 onwards.

CHIEF Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa says that all enumerators have been told not to use lead pencils while filling out forms
CHIEF Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa says that all enumerators have been told not to use lead pencils while filling out forms

Census teams will fill out Form-2 on the spot. The form carries 25 questions, 12 of which deal with name, sex, age, marital status, religion, mother tongue, nationality, literacy, level of education, employment status, status of CNIC, etc. The next 13 questions deal with ownership of the house, construction details, facilities like internet, use of TV and radio and people living abroad for more than six months, etc.

Mr Bajwa said all enumerators had been told not to use lead pencils while filling out forms. Only prescribed ballpoints would be used.

In response to a question about the validity of the data, the chief commissioner said military personnel accompanying the civilian enumerators were also filling out enumeration forms so that the numbers could be compared and there was no margin of error. Machine-readable forms were being used to ensure transparency.

Any area missed by a team would be covered by a reserved team, said Mr Bajwa, adding that no house would be left unmarked. If an apartment was left out, the owners should immediately inform the census board, he explained.

He clarified that census teams were not allowed to enter homes. He advised people to check the allotted identification cards and make sure that they were wearing the prescribed green jackets.

He stressed that all complaints regarding the census were being addressed properly. He said there had been reports of fake teams at a few places, and added that it was the responsibility of citizens to report those teams so that the authorities could take swift action.

He said the census would be carried out in 32 districts of Balochistan. The census in Orakzai tribal agency was being carried out with support from local people.

All data would be collected at the PBS Islamabad office as districts did not have data processing facilities, said Mr Bajwa. However, representatives of all provinces would be involved in the processing of data.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2017

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