Islamabad, January 27, 2023 (PPI-OT):Census is a huge National Exercise and its smooth execution involves appropriate planning, lot of efforts, commitment and ownership of all stakeholders. To share the proceedings of Census Activities with multilateral and think tanks, an orientation session was held at National Census Coordination Centre (N3C), PBS Head Office, and Islamabad.

Representatives from The World Bank, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNHabitat, WFP, Population Council, FAO, FCDO, UNHCR, and SDPI and PIDE joined the session. Chief Census Commission, Dr. Naeem uz Zafar, Member (Support Services / Resource Management), Mr. Muhammad Sarwar Gondal, Member (Census and Surveys), Mr. Ayazuddin and other senior officers from PBS were also present. Dr Naeem uz Zafar, Chief Census Commissioner, welcomed the participants on behalf of PBS and apprised that ever since the direction of Council of Common Interest (CCI) to conduct 7th census digitally, Pakistan Bureau of statistics (PBS) has been working hard to comply with the direction. While directing to conduct 7th census, CCI directions included specific measures for non-recurrence of the issues occurred in last census.

One specific issue was use of national identity card which caused controversies. PBS was also directed to conduct informative sessions with provincial stakeholders about design of 7th census to improve their trust in census process and results. The forum was apprised that the milestones set for initiating the conduct of census have been achieved through untiring efforts of PBS and its partners; majorly, NADRA, NTC, Provincial Governments, and Armed Forces.

This milestone includes establishment of 495 Census Support Centers for tablet acquisition and distribution, coordination for census activities, enumeration staff management and logistics, hardware and software support; acquisition of 126,000 field enumerators from provincial governments for field enumeration; acquisition of 126,000 secured tablets; development of ERP system comprising of enumeration, administration, and monitoring modules for census conduct; conduct of pilot census to assess the census averages thus paving the way for up scaling, three-tier cascaded training to train 126,000 officials from provincial governments for digital census; establishment of secured transmission of data to secured servers; establishment of self-enumeration portal; and establishment of call centers for feedback and addressing complaint.

Forum was apprised that the upcoming Census will not only count individuals in the country but it will be a broader exercise that will geotag all structures of the country and give a frame for Economic Census. Participants were further apprised about monitoring mechanism and quality assurance through Computer Assisted Telephonic interviews (CATI) emphasized that, Population data collected through census is important and critical as it is main determinant of all development policies.

Participants raised questions about bringing stakeholders on board, effective communication at various stages of census and especially after census to disseminate findings for effective usage. PBS was also enquired about technical detail of self-enumeration as this is an innovation.

PBS responded to these questions and told that stakeholders have been appraised at every stage of preparation and will be the part of conduct and monitoring as well. The digital system allows the shared progress monitoring by all provinces from Tehsil to province level by respective officials.

The participants also visited Census Control Centre, GIS lab and Control room as all these institutions are fully equipped to fulfill the requirements of digital conduct of census and quick decision making. All participants showed their satisfaction over the procedures and processes adopted for 7th Population and Housing Census and appreciated PBS for untiring efforts for the successful completion of the national exercise.

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