Ethnic people are worried that they will be recorded in the ongoing junta-organised census as being Bamar because enumerators are deliberately putting down false information on census forms.

The junta-organised census, running from 1 to 15 October 2024, has no question about ethnicity, unlike the previous censuses in 1974, 1983 and 2014. But in this year’s census there is a question that asks what primary language respondents use at home.

Though no figures relating to ethnicity were released after the 2014 census, despite there being a question about it, many people are worried that language spoken at home is being used as a proxy for ethnicity in this year’s census.

This is problematic on a number of levels. Firstly, some ethnic people might embrace their ethnic identity but not speak an ethnic language at home due to limited opportunities to to learn ethnic literature and language and because of the pervasiveness of Burmese as the lingua franca of Myanmar. If such people tell enumerators that they use Burmese at home their ethnicity will incorrectly be recorded as Bamar, if language spoken at home is being used as proxy for ethnicity.

To make matters worse, in Ayeyarwady Region census respondents have caught census enumerators deliberately putting Bamar down as the language spoken at home despite being told that an ethnic language was spoken in the home.

A Karen woman in Einme Township, Ayeyarwady Region, said that when enumerators asked her the language used in the family home she said Karen, but she saw that on the census form the enumerator had written that Bamar was the language spoken in the family home.

She said: "The census enumerator who came to our house was a school teacher. When she asked what language we always use at home, I told her it was Karen, but she wrote Burmese instead. A friend of mine, standing behind her, noticed it by accident. So, I asked her to correct it, but the enumerator argued that I spoke Burmese fluently. I only answered in Burmese because she conducted the census in that language, but that doesn’t mean my mother tongue is Burmese. Yet, she recorded my home language as Burmese, disregarding what I had said.”

Though the Karen woman clearly explained her point the enumerator refused to correct where she had written Burmese for the language spoken in the home.

Because this year’s census no longer has a section asking about ethnicity many ethnic people worry that their answer to the question about what language is spoken at home will be used as a proxy to decide ethnicity. If enumerators are incorrectly saying people speak Burmese when they do not, it could result in the population numbers for ethnic people being too low and those for Bamar people being too high.

Though the population figures for ethnic groups were not released after the 2014 census, decisions important to ethnic people throughout the country were made based on ethnic groups’ population numbers that came from the census.

One example of this is the election of ethnic affairs ministers. At the last election, in states and regions where members of an ethnic minority from another region numbered more than 0.1 per cent of the Myanmar population (about 51,400 people) members of that ethnic minority were able to vote for an ethnic affairs minister to represent their ethnicity in that state or region at the national parliament.

For instance, for the 2020 elections the number of Karen people registered as living in Mon State was greater than 0.1 per cent of Myanmar’s population so Karen people in Mon State were allowed to vote for a Mon State Karen Ethnic Affairs Minister to represent them in the national parliament.

But, if numbers of ethnic people are deliberately undercounted it could disenfranchise them by denying them their right to vote for an ethnic affairs minister to represent them in the region where they live.

A Karen youth living in a liberated area not under junta control alleged that the question change had happened because the junta wants to intentionally under-report ethnic population numbers.

He said: "This deliberate change in question terminology is merely a plot by the junta motivated by chauvinism. Essentially, the junta is exploiting ethnic people who do not speak their own languages to under-report the populations of their respective groups. This census is being conducted by an illegitimate regime. If a federal democratic system is not established fairly, many of our ethnic people may face the consequences of these records in the future.”

The Karen Literary and Culture Committee, based in Yangon Region, submitted a written request to the junta's relevant officials to reverse the change in the census questions asked, but so far they have received no response.

The junta says the census is necessary because the census results will be used to draw up voter lists for the junta’s planned elections in 2025. The census is due to be carried out from 1 to 15 October 2024, but in areas where the census cannot be taken during that period because of fighting, the junta says it will arrange for the census to be carried out at a later date when fighting has subsided.

Resistance forces have said they are strongly opposed to the census and the planned elections. They have told people not to take part and threatened those who are helping take the census. In some parts of Magway and Bago regions there have been bomb attacks targeting census workers and those protecting them.