Hectic time for census teams

Census 2010

Census officials in Accra and other parts of the country were confronted with the realities of homelessness on Sunday night as they encountered hectic times enumerating the floating population.

That constituency comprised street dwellers, 'kayayei' (female head porters) at lorry parks and other locations as well as hotel guests.

In that endeavour, while some hoteliers refused to allow census officials to enumerate their guests, some 'kayayei' gave a cold reception to the enumerators and were largely unco-operative.

In spite of those challenges, which appeared to have cast early dark clouds over the enumeration exercise, the Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, remained upbeat that there was no cause for alarm.

While discounting the impact of those negative developments as potential drawbacks to the success of the census, she reminded the public that participation in the census was an obligation under the law.

The enumerators hit the streets and lorry stations between 11p.m. and midnight to locate the homeless, particularly the 'kayayei', for counting, and many of them were deeply asleep, oblivious of the national exercise.

The leadership of the 'kayayei' had to go round clapping and shouting to wake their colleagues up to avail themselves for enumeration.

The 'kayayei', having carried heavy loads all day after which they had retired to the verandas and open places in front of stalls, kiosks and other structures in the markets, found the visit of the enumerators a rather unpleasant interruption of their rest.

At the Tema Station, some of them did not co-operate with the enumerators, refusing to respond to questionnaires, while others could not resist the heaviness of their eyes at that late hour.

Others also wondered what the whole exercise was about and how possible the population of the whole nation could be counted as explained by the enumerators.

Furthermore, some of the 'kayayei' expressed fear that the enumerators were on a mission to expose them to the authorities and cause their arrest or impose taxes on them.

Others were not happy with television cameras that accompanied the census officials, saying although television stations had come to take pictures of them and their particulars taken on several occasions, they had not seen any positive change in their circumstances.

Another difficulty encountered by the enumerators was the location of the homeless. Initially, census officials had anticipated to find the homeless grouped in big structures, but upon entering the field, they realised that many of the homeless slept in pockets.

"This is becoming an increasingly big phenomenon, " Dr Bediako said, pointing out that there would be the need to re-visit those areas during the post-census survey in order to ensure a complete census.

Elsewhere, enumerators did not encounter much difficulty as the head porters were very co-operative.

One of the enumerators, Ms Henrietta Brocke, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise was very smooth within her area of operation.

Of the negative attitude of hoteliers, Dr Bediako said she had reported the matter to the President of the Ghana Hoteliers Association and expressed the hope that things would change for the better.

Apart from 'kayayei', census officials also visited the Kotoka International Airport, drinking spots and entertainment centres to count travellers and patrons of entertainment joints, who form part of the floating population.

National census officials were scheduled to meet later yesterday to review the success or otherwise of the first day of Census 2010.

Meanwhile, enumerators have begun validating data on the institutional population made up of students living on the campuses of senior high and tertiary institutions, patients in health facilities and prison inmates, which data was collected last week.

During the validation exercise, patients and prison inmates, who were, for instance, discharged before midnight of last Sunday, will have their data deleted, in order to avoid discrepancies like double counting.

In the Western Region, the exercise went on smoothly in spite of a heavy downpour, with more than 4,000 enumerators undertaking the exercise, reports Kwame Asiedu Marfo.

Briefing the Daily Graphic on the exercise, the Western Regional Statistician of the Ghana Statistical Service, Mr Emmanuel Nana Opoku, said the National Population and Housing Census in the region started with the floating and institutional population at such places as training schools, hospitals, prisons and prayer camps.

Mr Opoku also said the floating population included passengers travelling long distances and squatters at places like the fishing harbour, the Sekondi Post Office area and the Kojokrom Railway Station, all in the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Area.

He explained that those taking care of patients on admission at the hospitals were not considered as part of the institutional population, as they would be included in the normal exercise.

He mentioned the continuous rainfall in the region as the main challenge facing the enumeration exercise as it made it difficult for enumerators to mark the houses and other structures.

From Tamale, Vincent Amenuveve reports that the Northern Regional Statistician, Mr Thomas Azure, denied reports that the exercise in the Northern Region was unsuccessful.

He stressed that materials were available for enumeration and pointed out that the major challenge facing the region now was rather how to reach a few communities that had been cut off as a result of the floods.

Mr Azure told the Daily Graphic in Tamale that reports reaching him indicated that communities such as Zabzugu, Tatale, Daboya, Kpandai, Mankaragu, Kubore and others in the Nanumba South and North districts had completely been cut off from the region.

According to him, as a contingency measure, his outfit was liaising with the Ghana Health Service in the region to get support in terms of life jackets and other equipment to enable the exercise to take place in the affected communities, as well as other areas described as "overseas" communities in the region.

The statistician further advised enumerators, the media and residents of the region to avoid "blowing issues out of proportion" and co-operate with his outfit to make the exercise successful.