Pakistan’s first-ever digital population and housing census, which was rolled out on 1 March, promises to be transparent. But already, there are fears that it will not be as inclusive as it claims to be in the backdrop of both political and economic instability.
The aim of this massive undertaking is to gather demographic data on every individual ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections, officials said. To that end, all structures in the country will be geotagged, while citizens have to enter family details online via the government’s ‘self-enumeration’ profile’. But the deadline, which was due to expire on 3 March, has been extended due to low registration and a flood of requests from provinces for more time.
Around 92,754 enumerators are also engaged in door-to-door field initiative, Gulf News reported.
According to the spokesperson for the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the benefits of this include reliable data, real-time monitoring and complete coverage of remote areas. A 24-hour complaint management system has also been arranged.
The census is seen as an effective tool for planning socio-economic activity for it will “clearly show the access and deprivation picture”, said chief PBS statistician Naeemuz Zafar.
Zafar noted the census to be a “sea of change” that will enable many, including the homeless, seasonal workers and nomads.
The statistician further added that the provinces will automatically get disaggregated information on gender, employment and migration, among other indicators.
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Sea change or sea of exclusion?
But not everyone is convinced of these arguments. Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called the digital census a “flawed” exercise and argued that conducting the digital census at the time of the elections was not the solution.
According to him, the upcoming elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were being held based on the old census, while the elections in the other provinces are to be held on the new digital census.
The country has been riddled with issues related to its census. Many are worried that this census, much like last time’s, will be accompanied with its fair share of setbacks such as lack of transparency, a non-inclusive count and under counting of minority groups.
This year’s census is expected to be conducted under tight security to avoid a repeat of the previous exercise, the results of which were never announced over complaints about errors and exclusion.
Pakistanis have mixed feelings about this exercise — some have cited this as a ‘futile exercise’, and a fraud led by the Pakistani government, others see it as a new ‘milestone’ for the country.
Human rights activists are demanding a more transparent and inclusive census. They argue that the new digital process should be made as accessible as possible to include previously excluded or undercounted groups such as transgender people and ethnic minorities.
For instance in 2021, transgender people were counted for the first time in the census, and the survey identified only 10,418 transgender people out of a population of nearly 208 million.
Qamar Naseem, founder of a transgender rights advocacy group claimed that people with disabilities were also “not counted properly.”
The results of the digital census will be announced next month.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)