Census awaits data on 800,000 people, official says

 

Myint Kyaing, director-general of the ministry’s population department, said census data had yet to be collected from 97 villages in Kachin State, while data from some areas of Kayin State had yet to be delivered as it was collected by members of armed ethnic groups there. 

The gap in Rakhine boiled down to what Myint Kyaing referred to as “the naming problem”. Some Muslim residents of the conflict-hit state refused to be identified as “Bengalis” in the census, as they refer to themselves as “Rohingya”. “Bengali” has been the traditional term for describing this group in Myanmar, but many Muslim residents of Rakhine are increasingly describing themselves as “Rohingya”, saying they are a distinct ethnic group. “Rohingya” is also the term used internationally. They are refused citizenship in Bangladesh as well as Myanmar.

Some Bengalis/Rohingyas from Sittwe, Mrauk U and Maungdaw townships declined to provide information to the census enumerators unless they were referred to as Rohingyas, Myint Kyaing said. 

Census enumeration has been temporarily suspended in some areas of Rakhine and Kachin states as the ministry discusses the difficulties of collecting data there, according to the population department. 

It will release some results from the census soon, including the exact population of the country, Myint Kyaing said. “According to a total of 81,000 enumeration blocks, the population is less than 60 million,” he added.

The census, the first since 1983, has four stages: preparing for the survey, conducting the census, processing and analysing data, and releasing statistics.

The full results will be released in May next year, with subsequent reports on the process issued in November next year.