Data about disabilities to be collected after census, SHC told

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics informed the Sindh High Court on Friday that data about physical disabilities would be collected in Form-2 that would be filled out after the initial census data collection process.

Filing comments on a petition seeking directives to the census department to include a column for handicapped persons in the census form, PBS Director Nafees Ahmed submitted that as per a decision of the Council of Common Interests, the house listing and census operation pertaining to core questions would be used in census operation, while Form-2A containing questions regarding fertility, migration, unemployment and disabilities is to be canvassed on a sample basis after the census operation is over.

He submitted that the PBS will then collect, compile and disseminate date on disabilities including questions of nature of disability and reason of disability, i.e. by birth, disease, accident, old age etc.

He submitted that the survey would represent at the district level with an urban-rural breakdown at 95 percent confidence level for which a sample of over a million households would be canvassed.

He mentioned that Form-2A was not part of the census exercise in the censuses of 1951, 1961 and 1972 and this form was introduced as an additional exercise in the census of 1981 and 1998.

The PBS director submitted that census activities have been launched from March 15 and for this purpose over 50 million machine readable forms have been printed and over 1,18,000 enumerators and supervisors have been trained accordingly, therefore, it would not be possible to add a column for the disabled in census form.

The court after taking the comments on record adjourned the hearing till March 24 for rejoinder of the petitioner counsel.

The petitioner, Amity International and Pakistan Association of the Blind, submitted that census forms had no columns to record data about handicap persons in the country.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted that the census department did not make any columns for special and handicapped citizens who also hold equal rights under the constitution.