ISLAMABAD: Civil society activists on Thursday demanded the government include women teachers and lady health workers (L H Ws)in the census teams, so that the collection of data is not affected by cultural and communication barriers.

Sarwar Bari, who heads the Pattan Development Organisation, told a news conference that of the 190,000 officials taking part in the census, only 2,400 were women.

`Even this figure is not authentic, because a few days ago it was claimed that only 300 women were participating in the data collection process. Moreover, women are only being deputed in Karachi; not a single woman has been deputed in Punjab, or even Islamabad,` he said.

`It is being claimed that the women cannot work with namehram (unfamiliar) men. But when there will be women in a majority of the households [being surveyed], how will they be able to communicate with the unfamiliar men [of the data collection teams]?` he asked.Rights activist Fatima Atif said that in areas such as Balochistan, women could not interact with army officials because they would not trained for it.

Dr Rakshanda Parveen, who has been working with special persons for 25 years, said that in Pakistani society people become culturally-disabled and the situation of women was even worse. `Civil society should focus on these issues and women should not be excluded from the census,` she said.

`It is also being claimed that some information will be collected now and the rest will be collected in October this year. It seems that Rs20 billion will be wasted and the census will bringus nothing but embarrassment,` Mr Bari said.

Comparing the questionnaires from the 1998 and 2017 census, Mr Bari said that a three-page form was used in 1998, but only a one-page form was being used for current census, adding that the country may not be able to achieve its goals from the way the census was being carried out.

`Moreover, the army will keep the forms with them, which shows that they do not trust civilian departments,` he said.

Mr Bari found it strange that a fine of Rs50,000 would be levied on someone who provided the wrong information, but there was no punishment for someone who noted incorrect information.

Transgender activist Nadeem Kashish said that the transcommunity also had its doubts over whether they would be included in the census exercise, since there was no separate field for their identification on the current census form, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had ordered that trans-people should be included in the headcount.

Kashish said that if they were to be properly identified, transpeople would need three columns in the gender field, i.e. transmen, trans-women and genderfluid. `But we have simply been grouped under `others`,` Kashish said.

`We have been informed that the forms were published in 2012. But the Supreme Court decision also came in the same year. It seems the government is not interested in knowing the exact number of transgender people in the country,` he said.

Qamar Naseem from the NGO Blue Veins said that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, trans-people had left their houses because they knew they would suffer if census teams forced them to register as transgender.

Awami Workers Party`s Farzana Bari said that the form being used for the current census could not collect complete information about citizens.

`I suggest that new forms should be printed and accurate data should be collected because this is a very important issue, she said. Ikram Junaidi