Census work at a snail's pace

By J.S. Ifthekhar

HYDERABAD, FEB. 16. A week after it commenced, the census operation in the twin cities is progressing at a snail's pace. In some areas, particularly in the old city, the enumeration work is yet to start.

Difficulty in location of households as per the data contained in the abridged list is turning the whole thing into an exercise in futility. The biggest challenge being faced by enumerators is identification of building numbers and matching the same with the information already furnished. If the house number is found, it does not tally with the name of the head of the household as contained in the abridged list, and where the right person is identified, his door number turns out to be different. It is like hunting a needle in the hay stack - as difficult as that. And that is the ground reality.

``For the last five days I have been going around the area allotted to me, but I have not been able to locate a single house as per the abridged list," says Mr. Rajender Singh, an enumerator incharge of Nawabsab Kunta.

The houselisting operation was carried out a few months ago during which the census houses were "identified and systematically listed". But now the enumerators are unable to locate the same. This puts a big question mark over the integrity of the abridged list which is supposed to be an essential link between the houselisting operations and the population enumeration.

This correspondent who accompanied an enumerator and moved around Jahanuma, Wattepally, Mustafanagar, Chasma, Achireddynagar, Tigalakunta in the old city found the complaint to be not entirely untrue. For instance, there is this number 19-3-262/1/A in Mustafanagar belonging to one Mohd Asif. But it simply does not exist. A few yards away is Yakoob Ali's house bearing the number 19-3-262/A/1 but it does not figure in the abridged list. Is it a new house? "No, we are staying here for the last 40 years," pat comes the reply.

Lane after lane the same story and confusion repeats. At Achireddynagar, a basti leader, Mohd Farooq, is aghast that his house number 19-3-262/50/44/A1 does not figure in the abridged list. "I don't know what kind of a survey was done in the first phase of the census," he remarks.

The enumeration block numbers are supposed to be written on the walls for easy identification of the houses. But no where are these numbers found, at least not in the old city. Moreover, a whole lot of houses simply do not figure in the official list. For instance, in EB No. 117 there are 92 houses, but in reality there are nearly a thousand households, asserts Rajender Singh.

As it is the numbering of houses in the city is most haphazard. The confusion gets confounded with sub-tier numbers not being in order. Some enumerators are stated to have found an easy way out of this impasse. They just fill the household schedule with imaginary names and data. Still better for a sum of Rs. 1,000 you can have the whole exercise done for you in a couple of days. Basti youth have found a golden opportunity in the census for making a fast buck. For the unscrupulous enumerators, it is like having a cake and eating it too. They do not mind shelling down part of their remuneration to avoid the legwork.

When contacted, the Charminar legislator, Mr. Asaduddin Owaisi, said the census work in the old city was being done in a casual way with the enumerators not visiting each and every house. "There is none to supervise their work," he said.

Mr. Ch. Ravindranath, Additional Commissioner, MCH (Elections), denied that any enumerator would be able to fill the household schedule with imaginary data as their work would be randomly verified by supervisors. He, however, admitted that some new enumerators might be finding it difficult to locate the houses. The MCH staff would be asked to help them out.

Meanwhile, the first week reports indicate that the enumeration work done was an average of 23 per cent in the twin cities and in the old city it was a mere 17 per cent.

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Section  : Southern States
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