Census: First phase ends this week

Tegta has just returned from Kinnaur and will now go to Bara Bengal,one of the most inaccessible areas in Kangra district. The Bara Bengal area has no road connectivity. To reach the local population,enumerators will be required to take up to a 20-km journey on foot.

“Experiences in the first phase,which included Pandra Bees,Kashapath,Shae Bees and other remote terrains of Sirmour district and Giri Paar areas,will come in handy for the operations in the difficult snow-bound valleys of tribal districts,” said Tegta.

Pandra Bees,about 250 km from Shimla,is inaccessible and a highly backward belt. Lack of road connectivity,poverty and absence of basic amenities still plague the area.

Jitender,37,an enumerator at Dalog village,nearly 200 km from Shimla,was limping as he had fractured his foot while returning from an inaccessible village. “I travelled three kilometers like this,but am not complaining because I have completed the task before the schedule,” he says.

Woman enumerators are not behind. Subadhra,in her late thirties,is a schoolteacher in Giri Paar,another highly backward and inaccessible belt of Sirmour district. Subadhra leaves her house at 6.30 am,after completing all household chores for her family of six. “I have no problem in covering long distances and climbing up to seven kilometers daily. Being a rural hill woman,I am used to this. The population I covered has been extremely cooperative and supportive. Barring the very old people,I have managed to collect actual dates of birth of all the people I went to. I am really enjoying this,” she says.

Says Balbir Tegta: “We are perhaps one of the fortunate states where the enumerators are by and large very enthusiastic,extremely dedicated and people friendly. They were trained at different levels on the nature of questions to be asked and the forms to be filled up. Government officials are extending full support. We will try to be one of the few states to complete the operation ahead of schedule,if weather conditions remain favorable.”

The first phase of census,which include ‘house listing’ and collection of data for the National Population Registrar (NPR),had 19,000 enumerators and supervisory staff in Himachal Pradesh,which recorded a population of 60 lakh in the Census 2001.