Senior citizens at a south Delhi old-age home ignored by census officials. They have raised the issue with area MP and Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken. Fear government may deny them UID cards
Senior citizens at a south Delhi old-age home ignored by census officials. They have raised the issue with area MP and Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken. Fear government may deny them UID cards
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| Sidelined: A senior citizen at the Netaji Nagar old-age home, which is run by the NDMC. It houses 50 inmates. Pic/mid day |
Their children have left them behind and moved on with their respective lives, they are frail and weak but age is yet to weaken their resolve to hold their heads high and be counted.
The inmates of a old-age home Sandhya in south Delhi's posh Netaji Nagar have given a clarion call against the royal ignore given to them by the officials conducting census in their area.
The senior citizen home, which is run by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), houses 50 elderly and falls in the constituency of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken.
The headcount procedure that commenced in the national capital on May 1 is going to end today. However, the elderly allege that nobody came for registering them in the national population register.
"Last week I saw an advertisement in one of the newspapers, saying census enumerators will visit every building (home, shop, office or other premises) in the areas of MCD and Delhi Cant Board in the NCT of Delhi to fill up the house listing and National Population Register (NPR) forms till June 15, 2010.u00a0 If the enumerator has not yet visited any building, it may contact the charge officer of the particular ward," Dr J M Chakrabarti told MiD DAY who resides in room no. 20 of Sandhya for the last 16 years.
"I was surprised that no NDMC buildings was mentioned in the list. were not there in the list. So we started enquiring about it," he said.
A group of Sandhya inmates visited the office of Director of Census Operation, Delhi on June 10. They were told that Director, NDMC, is entrusted with the census of NDMC house listing. Later, they were asked to get in touch with Varsha Joshi, the overall in charge of census in Delhi.u00a0
Joshi told the senior citizens that 'Sandhya' is listed as an institute does not fall into the category of a house. She explained to them that institutions have not been taken into consideration for the purpose of census.
"It is astonishing that Sandhya is not included in the list. It houses 50 elderly people most of whom are over 70 years of age. All of us have been living here for the last more than 10 years and yet they have ignored us," said an inmate, requesting anonymity.
Another member alleged that it might be a "conspiracy" to deny them unique identification cards, as the information collected during the census will also be used to issue the UID cards to the citizens.
"We have our passport, bank accounts and ration card registered at the address of Sandhya only. How could they ignore this fact?" she asked.
Under census 2011, the first phase of house listing and housing census along with collection of data on NPR has commenced with effect from April 1, 2010 in a phased manner covering 29 States/Union Territories till May 2010. The remaining States are to be covered during June 2010.
For each state the exercise is to be completed within 45 days, followed by biometric and photography visits required for publication of the NPR.
| The Other Side |
| Sandhya old age home falls under an institution and we have a slightly different policy for this. It needs to be certified by some authority and we are preparing a different format for it too. Once we are ready with it, we will send the forms to them. Probably we will take all these institutions in the second phase.
-u00a0Varsha Joshi, Director of census operations in Delhi |
Census FAQS
Q. Whom do I contact in case my house is not covered?u00a0
The local Tehsildar/Ward Officer of your area is the designated officer. In case of need you can also contact the Collector/DC/DM of your District or the Commissioner of your Town. You can also intimate us over e mail or contact us over the toll free number given in this website.u00a0
Q. What is the Link between NPR and Unique ID Authority of India (UIDAI)?u00a0
The data collected in the NPR will be subjected to de-duplication by the UIDAI. After de-duplication, the UIDAI will issue a UID Number. This UID Number will be part of the NPR and the NPR Cards will bear this UID Number. The maintenance of the NPR database and updating subsequently will be done by the Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India.
| Count me in |
| Census-2011, the world's biggest administrative exercise, began on April 1 when President Pratibha Patil was enumerated as the first citizen of India.
The gigantic exercise - the 15th headcount of India's population since 1872 - is being undertaken in two phases to create a database on demography, economic activity, literacy and education, housing and household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, language, religion and migration.
The exercise is being conducted in two phases -- house-listing and population count. Over the next one year, about 2.5 million census officials would visit households in more than 7,000 towns and 600,000 villages in the country. The full census results will be released in mid-2011. |
