Minorities for making Population Census process all-inclusive

Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The representatives of different religious minorities have urged the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to ensure proper representation of their youth in data collection for an all-inclusive population census.
Chairman One-man Commission on Minority Rights (OMC) Dr Shoaib Suddle presided over a meeting with the PBS officials and the representatives of minorities to ascertain the latest status and plan of the ensuing population census, an official of the OMC told APP while sharing the recent update on the meeting.
The OMC chairman briefed the participants about the purpose of the meeting which mainly related to sharing of concerns of minority communities in relation to their lack of participation in, and certain reservations about the 2017 Census data.
After listening to the participants’ suggestions, the Director General (Admin) of PBS agreed to get the following points considered:
Inclusion of different marginalized groups in the enumeration teams, trainers and entire process of data collection and data processing; sensitizing the enumerators on cultural, caste and religious factors, so that they fill the census form correctly; train and instruct the relevant staff so that the entire population with its religious, ethnic, caste, gender or racial identity etc., was reflected in the results.
Moreover, the minorities’ representatives demanded real-time transferring of data from the field to the main system without any data losses; effective awareness campaigns be launched through electronic and print media regarding the registration process; online registration facility be provided so that people having access to internet may avail this facility; and places of worship should be used for awareness purposes.