Census faces urban problem: enumerators do not turn up

On Sunday,the DCO office held a meeting with its in-charges of 71 districts to review the progress made and receive suggestions. “We have received reports that enumerators are skipping duties in urban areas. Situation is bad particularly in Lucknow,Allahabad and Kanpur,where the number of erring enumerators are maximum,” said a senior official in DCO.  

In the first phase of Census 2011,survey has to be done for house listing and house census and for the National Population Register. The first phase ends on June 30.

Kanpur Municipal Commissioner and Additional Census Officer Raghvendra Vikram Singh said: “For survey in the urban areas of Kanpur,4,500 enumerators and supervisors were trained. But almost 700 of them did not go to the fields for enumeration in the first week.”

“Several departments are not interested to engage their employees for census work. After repeated requests of senior authorities,the number of Reserve Bank of India employees in census work was reduced by 75 per cent. Even after this reduction,the rest are not reporting for duty,” Singh said.

To ensure timely completion of census work,Singh has decided to engage private college teachers in census work.

“During summer vacations private college teachers are free and they could help us,” he said.  

Singh said: “Most of the enumerators are not aware of the given areas and that is also a reason for slow progress in survey in urban areas. Few are not able to understand the maps of the areas.”

Interestingly,this is not the case in rural areas. Additional District Magistrate,Allahabad,Pradeep Kumar Tiwari said the enumeration work in rural areas was going on fine.

Municipal Commissioner and Additional Census Officer,Allahabad,Ashok Kumar,said: “Employees are not showing interest in enumeration. Over 1,800 employees had been trained for census work in the city area. But around 450 of them have not reported for duty as yet.”

According to him,directives have been issued to lodge FIR against erring employees. “Heads of different government departments have been given the responsibility to ensure their employees selected for census work report for duty,” he said.

Lucknow District Magistrate and Principal Census Officer Anil Kumar Sagar said: “Over 12,000 employees were given training for census work. But,almost 1,000 of them are not going to the field for this job. If they do not turn up,FIRs will be lodged against them.”      

Joint Director,DCO,Pradeep Kumar said: “We have provided the training and required stationery for the first phase of the census. Now it is the responsibility of the state government to ensure timely completion of this work.”