Many countries around the world have digitized population counts to streamline and improve the accuracy of data. The first digital census in Pakistan is also underway and this is a great initiative for many reasons. Firstly, the aim is to collect population, housing, and various economic statistics including counting of services, businesses, and economic activities in houses. These economic statistics are being counted for the first time in Pakistan’s data history. These counts are also being geotagged, a process that will allow public and private service delivery to be distributed according to specific demographics.
This measure of socioeconomic status will inform public policymakers and improve public welfare. Not only this, an efficient map can be used to plan better for constituencies and rescue and relief operations. However, the task is to make sure that digital services and geotagging locations will lead to an accurate data collection mechanism, and this is possible if enumerators are trained in the transparent collection.
The 2017 census faced many miscounts and underrepresentation of communities. Proof of this fact is the count of transgender people, which was reported as only 10,418 out of 208 million. This was a gross underestimation of the size of the community and exclusion of groups in a census can lead to their exclusion from social security plans, public services, and government socio-economic initiatives. A way to counter a misrepresentation is with a public that is aware of on-ground realities so that the results can be vetted.
This exercise has taken a great chunk of government funds, especially with tablets being provided to 126,000 enumerators. Hopefully, this investment will bring out a more transparent and truer picture of the country. With any census, there are fears of fragmentation, undercounting, and exclusion but the 24-hour complaint management system and real-time monitoring mechanism is a good system to keep data collectors and processes in check. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics remains confident in the exercise and it is hoped that the endeavor will be fruitful for years to come.