Zubair Qureshi
Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications (IT &Telecom) Syed Aminul Haque on Monday inaugurated the self-enumeration portal for the 7th Population and Housing Census, 2023.
The ceremony was held at the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) House. The PBS is going to conduct Pakistan’s first-ever Digital Population and Housing Census. Chairman, National Database And Registration Authority (NADRA) Tariq Malik, stakeholders, provincial functionaries, demographers and senior officers of the PBS also attended the event and termed it a landmark development in digitally collecting population and housing data across the country. Syed Aminul Haque appreciated PBS and stakeholders (NADRA, SUPARCO, Provincial Governments, Armed Forces & NTC) to achieve the huge milestone of Self Enumeration. “It is comforting that we have reached the establishment of a system that can gather the count of individuals in Pakistan in a transparent and credible way,” said he.
Self-Enumeration Portal is just the beginning of Census Data Collection process, he said and hoped all the organizations would continue working to attain the goal and the results will be achieved as per scheduled timelines.
Chairman NADRA, Tariq Malik appreciated the efforts of NADRA team to adhere the timelines. In short time on war footing 126000 devices were prepared and distributed.
“Upcoming 7th Population and Housing Census is a paradigm shift towards digitization. Self-Enumeration is one of the innovation and convenience that this Digital Census has brought in Statistical System of Pakistan. Through Self Enumeration portal, it is easy to enter household information. After completing this milestone, Pakistan will become the first country in South Asia to offer the facility of self-enumeration” Chief Census Commissioner Dr. Naeemuz Zafar appraised the participants of the ceremony. He further informed that Geo-tagging, Tablet based data collection, real time monitoring, Complaint management system and computer assisted telephonic interviews for quality assurance will link the whole process with credibility, reliability and transparency. He appreciated the efforts of PBS and collaborating partners for working day and night for achieving this milestone.
Muhammad Sarwar Gondal, Member Resource Management /Support Services informed the participants about the background and efforts that were made to achieve the goal of Digital Census in Pakistan. For credibility of this process PBS involved all stakeholders from planning to finalization of results. He further cleared that main purpose of Census is Data driven Policy making and Planning. PBS used the data of 2017 Census for implementation of Smart lock down. Then he appraised that self-enumeration is for their convenience, as by following some easy steps they can enter their family information. These steps are Visit the self-enumeration portal, (https: self.pbs.gov.pk). Sign Up/Register using mobile number and generate a secure login/password, Complete the census questionnaire by providing the following details: Family information/Housing information/Respondent information, Review/ confirm information, and edit if needed, before submitting the census questionnaire. After submission of questionnaire a UTN will be issued which will be saved in your portal and sent to your registered mobile number through SMS. This UTN will be verified by census enumerators during field enumeration.
The official Census song “Tum he Se Hai Tumhara Kal” was also lunched in the ceremony. In order to engage online audiences on social media PBS collaborated with MindMap Communications Pvt. Ltd. and Bajao, one of the fastest growing music streaming services in Pakistan, to organize an online song competition using the slogan Tum He Se Hai Tumhara Kal.
Online audiences were encouraged to use the slogan and send in their song entries. The competition’s winner was the song entry that receives the most votes on Bajao’s Music App.
The inauguration of Self Enumeration portal is beginning of implementation of Paradigm shift towards digitization that PBS planned to achieve through this Digital Census.
