Enumerators undergo special training for Census 2011

Enumerators tasked with collecting information about the country's population are being trained to ask questions on sensitive issues, like disability and gender, when they knock on the doors for the second phase of the XVth Census next month.

"There are some questions which are very personal, so the questions have to be asked with certain delicacy," Varsha Joshi, Director of Census Operations in Delhi, told PTI. The second phase of population enumeration will be carried out between February 9 and 28.

About 30,000 enumerators in Delhi have been trained to ask 29 questions for this purpose which includes the nature of a person's disability, besides the questions that reveal information on gender gaps in various areas.

"Enumerator must be trained to fill the form correctly, but that's only part of the story. Because, getting the response is an art," Joshi said.

Due to "preconceptions", some people may hesitate in answering correctly and contain enumerators from asking vital questions.

Thus, three-day long training rounds have been held in Delhi, as well as the rest of the country, to equip them with "soft skills" that will not only help in weeding out such notions but effectively tackle problems "to get the right answer", she said.

This is also being done to help enumerators "reassure" response-givers of the confidentiality of the responses they provide, she added.

This training has acquired a special significance in Delhi with all its nine districts having been declared "gender critical" (meaning a significant gender gap in four indicators) following the results of the Census in 2001.

Lessons on both gender and disability issues have been taken to the enumerators, who form the grassroots level of a training hierarchy, in the capital. This is something which is not being done in most other districts, Joshi said.

"Last time our disability rates which came out of the Census was felt by most of the organisations dealing with disability to be too low," she said.

Special "gender sensitisation" and "sensitisation to disability issues" modules have thereby been devised which are using techniques like "role-plays" to help create a "direct emotional contact" and "make the material much more accessible" to those being trained.

"One has to take the extra step and ask. So, we want that the enumerator should do it. He may get the same answer in the end, but at least he has tried his best to get the right data," Joshi said.