7th Population and Housing Census 2022: PBS hosts first sensitisation workshop

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics hosted first sensitisation workshop on 7th Population and Housing Census 2022, first ever Digital Census of Pakistan at the Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad on Saturday.

The one-day workshop featured the sensitisation of the academia, researchers, policymakers as well as the public, since it symbolises the beginning of a critical synergetic relationship that will exist between the PBS and the stakeholders throughout the gigantic national activity.

The event covered keynote speeches, presentation on the 7th Population and Housing Census-2022 -- first ever Digital Census, a discussion session between the stakeholders and PBS.

Vice-Chancellor AIOU Prof Dr Zia-ul-Qayyum in his inaugural speech congratulated the government of Pakistan and PBS on taking the initiative of Digital Census. He appreciated that geo-tagging and electronic data collection will increase the reliability and transparency of the process. He offered all kinds of support for the national cause.

In his presentation, the focal person on Digital Census Muhammad Sarwar Gondal emphasized that the involvement of stakeholders from start to end will be a priority of PBS for wide acceptability of census results. It will clear their concepts regarding the census process and will be a start of their involvement and ownership in the census process. He further sensitised about recommendations of the Census Advisory Committee for the conduct of the 7th Population Housing Census. Moreover, he included that the PBS is conducting census after five years intervals, as per the decision of CCI, for the first time, with the use of the latest tools and technologies for improved quality of data. Geo-tagging and tablet-based, self-enumeration systems will build the trust of our stakeholders. All efforts are being made to address the issues identified in Population & Housing Census 2017. Further, the questionnaire has been drafted by the technical committee to address the objectives of the census.

During the Q/A session, all the queries of the participants were addressed related to Census 2022 digitization process.

In his closing remarks, Chief Statistician Dr Naeem uz Zafar appreciated the efforts of the PBS team, working day and night for this national cause, and hoped that they will work with the same dedication to accomplish this task.

Sensitisation workshops is an effort of PBS to bring awareness about the census process among the masses besides avoiding the trust deficit by engaging academia/universities, researchers, demographers, data users, NGOs, and other stakeholders, and such workshops will also be held at the provincial level.