Masses taking ongoing census with a pinch of salt

Locals hope that the data collection can yield positive results

LAHORE: Sixty-five-year-old Shah Muhammad is unsure over the precise way the government plans to use his family’s data, but the Abid Nagar resident hopes the Housing and Population Census 2017 will have a positive impact on future planning.

“I just hope it makes a difference,” he says.

His family is among those being enumerated by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in Punjab.

“I have gone through the cross questioning of the previous censuses, but my life has been largely unchanged for half a century,” he bemoans. “Are they going to do something to develop better health or educational facilities though this process?” he asks.



Shah Muhammad has been running a grocery shop in Abid Nagar for the last forty years. His routine is to open shop at Fajr prayer time and close by 10 pm. For him, routine has hardly changed for many years, no matter how much he may want it to.

“The team asked me about my basic demographics such as gender, age, marital status and religion. However, they never inquired about my health problems or how I struggle to make ends meet,” he sighs.

During the data collection, he shows little interest in the process, but answers all questions politely. In fact, he seems to have little interest in what the government intends to do with his data.

Replying to a question, he recalls the census of 1998, saying enumerators asked about disabilities in the family, reasons for migrating from agricultural areas to urban centers, mortality rates and health problems. “This time they never even asked why my son has been working in Saudi Arabis for so long.”



He ends by hoping authorities will be able to improve the standards of living of the poor through this census. In the same area, a Pukhtun shoemaker, on the other hand, is quite worried about revealing his data. He fears that the census may intensify ethnic difference, especially in Punjab.

“I have been working here for the last 30 years and it is the first time I have been reluctant to provide my credentials. Maybe they do not consider me Pakistani,” he says uncertainly.

He adds most of the population in the country is living in deplorable conditions and without employment. The shoemaker adds the primary objective of the census should be to devise policies in the interest of the general public.

“I hope that through this data, the differences between the many ethnicities of this country are wiped out,” he concludes. The current decennial census has been overdue since 2008. The last census was conducted in 1998 after a delay of seven years.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2017.