Provincial Secretary Planning and Development (P&D), Syed Manzoor Ali Shah has said necessary planning and preparation for holding of 2008 population and housing census has started. Addressing as chief guest a sensitisation workshop on Census and Gender Equity organised by Population Census Organisation and UNFPA here on Saturday.
Secretary P&D said the Population Census Organisation has started consultation with the provincial governments for all stages of their planning. The NWFP province, he added, has a very good representation in the Census Advisory Committee already formed for Census 2008.
He said holding of national census is a very sensitive and critical issue and all the provinces demand that the census should be conducted in fair and transparent manner.
Secretary P&D suggested that with the process of devolution of power to local levels the role of provincial and local governments has gained importance and therefore, the Population Census Organisation, Statistics Division should devise a mechanism whereby their participation and commitment is forthcoming.
Simultaneously, he continued, all relevant departments should extend their wholehearted support and co-operation to population census in this process.
He said one of the most important uses of population statistics is for planning long term economic development. The government of any developing country has a major role to play in fostering development and in planning sector it is important to know the geographical distribution of population so that these facilities cater to the needs of as many people as possible.
About gender equity, Secretary Planning said government of Pakistan attaches highest commitment to the development of women. He also urge the Population Census Organisation to provide detail and credible data on women and in this regard deployment of women field staff would be imperative to improve quality of women data on all aspects including age, education, labour force, fertility and mortality.
He expressed the hope that the recommendations made in the workshop would go a long way for undertaking of census 2008. Earlier, Chief Census Commissioner, Karam Elahi in his inaugural address said the successful implementation of census plan is only possible with the close co-operation and active support of the provincial governments and district authorities.
One of the major objectives of the workshop is to have direct interaction with the provincial administration to share their experience and expertise. He said population census is an important landmark in the history of every nation. The success of the execution of this exercise is reflected in the accuracy of the data collected through it, which is mainly dependent on two factors including accurate delimitation of census area and training of field staff.
He said Pakistan being the signatory of UN millennium Declaration is committed to make efforts for promoting gender quality in various fields of life. Prerequisite of much successful efforts are to improve knowledge on production of gender statistics particularly in the areas of economic participation and education.