Burmese government officials plan to begin collecting census data in remote parts of Kachin state census one month before the scheduled period when the national census officially take place, a Kachin state’s immigration and population department officer informed.The area where the earlier census will begin includes parts of the state still affected by conflict between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the military.
U Tin Soe, head of the immigration and population department, announced it will start at the beginning of the month in five townships.
“An advance census will be performed in Putao, Machyangbaw, Sumprabum, N’jang Yang and Chipwi starting from March 1, because the census collection cannot be completed during the scheduled 12 day period. Some villages can only be reached in four or five days,” said U Tin Soe.
The government is giving training to personnel tasked with data collection in the designated areas, he said. “Some groups have already arrived and one group will depart for Sumprabum today. Some groups have bought air tickets.”
The government plans to update its house hold number registry at both village and town levels.
“It does not mean (we will) issuing a new house number again. It’s designed to avoid overlapping house numbers during the collecting period,” added U Tin Soe.
The government is moving ahead with collecting census data while rejecting calls from the KIO, registered Kachin political parties and Kachin civil society groups to rethink the way the census will be carried out. Many Kachin are upset that the census lists the various Kachin subgroups as separate ethnicities.
Officially there are 135 ethnic groups listed in Burma. Of this group 12 sub-groups are classified in Kachin state. However these numbers has been disputed by Kachin organizations. Members of the six main Kachin sub-groups have been encouraged to put down the “Kachin 101 code” when they answer the census, instead of their respective Kachin sub-groups.
