Civilians claim the village heads have been running the ‘census scam’ since last week under the pretense of supporting the census. Villagers spoke to Karen News.

“The village heads collected money in our village,” a Ka Mawt Ka Kyo resident, U Tun Tun said.
“They collected 1,200 kyat from each household under the reason of supporting the reception for the teachers who are going to collect data for the census.”

In response to the allegations, Ka Mawt Ka Kyo village head, U Pein, said that the money was not being for the census, but was being used for educational purposes.

“The collected money is not for census data collection,” U Pein said, before claiming that the money was to be used for education. “It was collected for the school teachers who are teaching children at the village mosque.”

Villager, U Tun Tun pointed out that village heads should not be collecting money for the census and that the teachers conducting the census are likely to be unaware that fees were levied on their behalf. Another villager supported U Tun Tun allegations and said.

“It is the truth. They [village heads] came to collect the money,” village elder U Myint Win said. “I can still see them today.”

A Karen State official confirmed that wages for census collectors had already been allocated.
“Each school teacher was hired for 3,000 kyat per day by the state government, while the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) put in an additional 5,500 kyat, which is a total of 8,500 kyat (around US$8.50a day) for one person to receive,” Karen State Government Joint Immigration Officer Sin Tint Lwin said. “In fact, the training expenses were also provided during the training.”
The ongoing census, which ran from March 30 through to April 10 is supported by the UNFPA, and is the first national census of the country’s residents since 1983.