Kamal urges all to make ensuing Population Census successful

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal urged the countrymen to provide all the required information in the ensuing 6th Population and Housing Census billed for June 15 to 21 this year to make it flawless and successful.

"It's my earnest request to all, to provide all the required information in the upcoming census so that none remains outside of the enumeration process and thus making this big initiative a successful one," he said.

The Finance Minister said this while inaugurating the four-day training programme as the chief guest for the district census coordinators cum master trainers held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the capital.

Planning Minister MA Mannan gave a video message at the programme.

ICT Division Senior Secretary NM Ziaul Alam, Cabinet Division Secretary (coordination and reforms) Md Shamsul Arefin and Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Dr Shahnaj Arefin spoke as special guests presided over by the Director General of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) Mohammad Tajul Islam.

Project director of the 6th Population and Housing Census Md Dilder Hossain gave the address of welcome while Statistics and Informatics Division deputy Secretary Dr Dipankar Roy also spoke.

Speaking on the occasion as the chief guest, the Finance Minister also called upon all to remain alert so that none could create confusion among the common people through disseminating false information regarding the census.

Mentioning that everyone would now see the signs of development everywhere in the country, Kamal said the people of the country are working relentlessly to continue the country's progress under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Highlighting the importance of accurate data for framing development plans and thus working accordingly, he said that Bangladesh is in the right path for becoming a hunger and poverty free country by 2030 and a prosperous developed country by 2041.

The Finance Minister also noted that after the announcement of giving cash incentives against sending remittance to Bangladesh, the inward remittance flow through official channel has increased significantly over the years.

Planning Minister MA Mannan in his video message also sought cooperation from all in making the ensuing census accurate, flawless and successful.

He said although this 6th Population and Housing Census has been delayed by almost one and a half year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the BBS is firm enough to hold this census through digital method for the first time going beyond the traditional method.

He informed that around 4 lakh tabs have already been procured for the enumerators through which they would be able to conduct their activities with ease and comfort.

The Planning Minister said that the census activities would be conducted through integrated census management system while its operations would be monitored through real time.

The next four-day training Programme for the upazila census coordinators and zonal officers would be held from May 30 to June 2. Later, the training Programme for the supervisors and enumerators would be held on June 4-7 and June 9-12 respectively.

For conducting the census, web-based Integrated Census Management System (ICMS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) have already been formulated while control maps for the enumeration areas have also been prepared.

To make the next census a success, some 3.70 lakh enumerators, 64,000 supervisors, and 4,500 officials and employees will remain active in various tiers of the census activities.

Apart from BBS, some 900 officials from various government bodies will act as zonal officers during the census operations.

President Abdul Hamid will unveil commemorative postage stamp marking the census. Besides,

Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina will address before the nation on June 14 or any suitable time before the census to motivate people about the census.

The data collected from the census would remain as encrypted for which it would be possible to ensure cent percent security to personal information.

A state-of-the-art call center has already been set up at the BBS headquarters from where anyone through dialing 09602998877 would be able to get any census related information.

The country's first Population and Housing Census was held in the country in 1974 followed by the 2nd census in 1981, the 3rd one in 1991, the 4th census in 2001 while the 5th one in 2011.

In this census, using Geographic Information System-based digital map, data of all households of the country will be collected simultaneously through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing method using digital device 'tabs'.

The data from the field-level for the census will be collected from June 15 to June 21 while this will also be considered as 'census week'.

Under the census operations, demographic and socio-economic data like number of households and their nature, ownership of homes, main source of drinking water, toilet facilities, power facilities, main source of fire for cooking, economic operations, inward remittance, age of household members, gender, marital status, religion, obstacles, education, work, training, mobile phone and internet usage, bank/mobile banking accounts, small ethnic groups, nationality and various district-wise information would be collected.

A supervisor will supervise the activities of some 5/6 enumerators while a zonal officer will supervise the operations of some 120 enumerators or supervisors on average.

Besides, there will be upazila Census coordination officers, district census coordination officers and division census coordination officers to make this census a success.

The midnight of June 14 (zero hour of June 15) will be considered as 'census reference point or time'.