Hostile householders dent Census progress

‘Hostile’ attitudes by householders are putting a major dent in the progress of the 2023 Population and Housing Census resulting in census staff withdrawing from conducting the national survey.

Unpleasant attitudes, indirect refusals and also potential dog attacks are some of the challenges that census enumerators have had to deal with in the field since the exercise started last year.

This was revealed by officials in the Statistical Office during a panel discussion on the latest edition of RoundTable Talk on Thursday February 1.

The national census is a count of the housing stock, population, as well as population characteristics information such as educational attainment and socio-economic status and is being done under the theme ‘They Counting You. They Counting Me. The information will benefit the whole country’.

Statistician in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Information Technology, Jacintha Payne detailed the encounters of census enumerators and pleaded with Vincentians to desist from being uncooperative.

“… where enumerators are saying they are unable to make contact with respondents despite the fact that we have trained them to go at different times during the day because it might be a given that persons are employed. It is a difficult situation for the enumerators to actually locate you at times. We know of cases where enumerators say that persons would tell them to come back tomorrow and when they return they say come back another day. It is sort of an indirect form of refusal when you do that.”

Payne went onto explain that the many return visits result in enumerators exhausting the allocated travel allowance.

When census enumerators do eventually manage to meet householders, Payne said they are sometimes met with householders who show an attitude of indifference with some even letting loose their dogs while the surveyors are still on the property.

“Even at times they go to homes and they complain about the hostile treatment that they receive by the public. They are not accustomed to people speaking to them in that manner. Some people, we engage them and within a matter of a week, within a matter of a day, they would come back and bring back the materials and say that they can’t continue because of the way they are being treated,” she recounted.

“Yes, we know persons have dogs on their premises as a safety measure and precaution, but there are instances where an enumerator may want to come collect information and you let go your dog. We have had cases where enumerators complain that people let go their dog and people had to run and scale a wall once… it is very difficult.”

These incidents have resulted in a significant reduction in the number of enumerators and Statistician Jamal Byron said they have had to train others to replace those who have dropped out.

Byron described the census as a “tedious process” as the country is divided into 13 census divisions and further subdivided into 406 enumeration districts with very specific boundaries.

The National Census is being instrumented electronically and Byron noted the reluctance of some to participate in the census due to concerns about confidentiality.

“Even within the Census office, not everyone has access to the data. We have put things in place to limit access,” he assured.

He revealed that some questions on the population portion of the census is met with objection by some, particularly when it comes to fertility, marital and union status as well as income.

The panel stressed the importance of not only cooperating but also providing accurate information, explaining that the information is used in policy planning and also recovery after a natural disaster.

Statistician Payne reminded the public that under the Census and Statistic Act 1983, a person can be fined or imprisoned for not “furnishing the information” required to complete the census.