Riaz Ahmed stated that the seventh census will be Pakistan’s first digital census, in which modern technology will be used and every individual will be counted using tablets.
While addressing the inaugural session of the ongoing digital census training workshop organised by the Pakistan Statistical Institute, Commissioner of Bahawalpur Division Raja Jahangir Anwar stated that accurate census and data records play an important role in future planning.
Resources and future needs can be identified with the help of accurate data. The training session for Bahawalpur division trainers in connection with the seventh national census will continue until December 23.
Three master trainers will train Bahawalpur trainers from three districts under the supervision of the Chief Statistics Officer and Divisional In-Charge Census, Pakistan Institute of Statistics Riaz Ahmed, and Master Trainer Ghulam Yasin.
Officers from the education department and NADRA will be trained on the fifth day of the training session. They will train supervisors in their respective tehsils further.
Riaz Ahmed, Chief Statistics Officer, thanked all participants on this occasion. He stated that the Pakistan Statistical Institute is conducting the seventh census with the assistance of the federal and provincial governments and that this will be Pakistan’s first digital census, in which modern technology will be used and every individual will be counted using tablets. The Council of Common Interest approved it in March 2022.
Riaz Ahmed stated that this phase will begin on January 7, 2023, and last until January 21, 2023. He also stated that any Pakistani citizen with access to the internet can register his household members. Census workers will double-check it.
Similar training of trainers was underway at Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering Science Nawabshah and Government Girls Mono-technical Institute in all three districts of Shaheed Benazirabad Division in preparation for the Department of Statistics’ first digital population and house census.
“The process of training 45 division trainers is underway,” said Assistant Census Commissioner and Divisional Coordinator Jeandal Shah. He stated that the trainers would provide training to the appointed staff at the tehsil level in the second phase.
Master trainer Hussain Ahmed Rind would train the appointed staff at the Auditorium Hall of Quaid-e-Awam University, while master trainer Munnawar Ali Rajput would train the appointed staff of different departments of the division at the Government Girls Mono-technical Institute for population and house censuses on a digital system.
Census Officer Aamir Ali Lark, Mushtaque Ahmed Kalhoro, Noor Din Jamali, and other officials attended the event. The training would continue until December 23.
NADRA proposed comprehensive “IT solution” for the 7th Population and Household Census of Pakistan, “The Digital Census,” for the first time in Pakistan. This activity spans the entire country, with 628 tehsils comprising approximately 185,000 census blocks.
The activity will be carried out using android-based smart devices that are outfitted with an android-based house listing and enumeration application that is synchronised with GPS and GIS.