CENSUS india, ahmedabad

CENSUS
Volunteers count on foul tactics to ease workload

Some enumerators have shortened the census form

The rule is to fill in the census form on the spot

They drop it off at people’s homes and collect it later

Census director says efforts are on to stop the practice


RUTURAJ JADAV AND DILIP PATEL


Some people tasked with carrying out the census are cutting corners to make their job easier. They have reduced the number of questions to be asked to denizens and have started dropping off census forms at homes instead of filling them up on the spot.
Every enumerator has been given two sets of forms comprising a total of 50 questions. He/she is required to pose these questions to households and jot down the answers in the forms then and there.
However, in a patent disregard of norms set for conducting the exercise, some enumerators have merged the two sets of forms into one, which comprises only nine questions. They leave this shortened version of the form at denizens’ homes and collect it later after it is filled up.
The director of census operations (government of India), Manish Bharadwaj, said that he had received complaints about enumerators resorting to such practice.
“Some teachers who have been appointed as enumerators have prepared duplicate forms for their convenience. We have asked collectors and officials concerned to stop this practice,” he said.
According to Bharadwaj, census forms have to be filled up in the presence of the head of a family or a person in charge of the house.
“Once all details are entered, a census volunteer has to take the signature of the person concerned,” he said. “There can be no shortcuts. This practice has to be followed; even I am following it.”
The census director said every teacher part of the exercise had been asked to complete only four to five forms a day. “This cannot be tedious ” he said.