Housing census: ‘35% peasant workers left out’

The Hindus of Tharparkar desert say six-day extension is not enough to count every house.

MITHI: The Hindus of Tharparkar desert are unsatisfied with the census and said that a six-day extension is not enough to count every house.

Nearly 35 per cent of peasants and workers from the Bheel, Kolhi and Meghwar peoples left their homes to look for work in other areas, which is why their houses have not been counted, complained speakers at a seminar organised by the Young Hindu Panchayat at Tharparkar auditorium on Wednesday.

They urged the government extend the deadline since the workers will return to the village after harvesting their crops.

“We reject the current listing because of irregularities in Karachi and because far-flung areas in the Thar desert have been left out,” said the organisation’s chair, Dr Dileep Kumar Doaltani.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2011.