Population census: Collecting floating population data is challenging, officials say

About a dozen homeless people were sleeping under the BTMC building at the capital's Kawran Bazar area at zero hours on Wednesday night, when a team of census officials from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) tried to wake them up.

Lal Mia, one of the day labourers, was the first to respond and it took only 12 minutes for the census official to input the respondent's answers into the tab.

"Collecting data of floating people at night is very challenging. Then again it is hard to find them during daytime when they go to work," Shahnaz Arefin, secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division told The Business Standard on the first day of the 6th housing and population census, the first one being conducted digitally.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched the week-long census at a ceremony at her official residence Gonobhaban in the capital.

The BBS is conducting the census after more than 11 years since the last census conducted in 2011.

Government officials continued collecting data of floating people in various places in the capital till 6am in the morning, said Shahnaz.

In many places, they found people to be reluctant to cooperate while in other areas many were asleep, said officials.

Officials said many of the floating people were reluctant to participate in the census and many were found asleep.

In Karwan Bazar, most people ignored repeated calls of enumerators. At one point, BBS officials tried to motivate them with the benefits of the census. 

Officials said many people did not cooperate even after they tried for hours.

The scenario was similar in Kamalapur Railway Station, where most people ignored calls to provide data.

Meanwhile, homeless people in the Bangabandhu Stadium area complained that some BBS officials came to collect data but left after asking the age and names of a few. They claimed that many were left out of the count.

Rejecting the allegations, Dildar Hossain, project director of the census, said three enumerators have been appointed in the stadium area as there are more people. They did their work properly.

He also said that enumerators found more people to be living in the area compared to the number reported in the zonal operations.

Meanwhile, people at the Saidabad Bus Terminal area appeared to be partaking in the census spontaneously.  

BBS official Minar Uddin, who was in charge of collecting data in the area, said 150 uprooted people were found in the area in the third zonal operation of the bureau. But on Wednesday, that number exceeded 250 by 2.30 am.

According to BBS, the data collection activities for the census will be conducted in every household across the country from June 15 to 21. The enumerators are using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (Capi) method to collect the data.

Project Director Dildar Hossain said the counting of floating people was conducted till 6.00 am.