Pakistan's Census Provides Opportunity for Minority Groups
Activists are pushing to make sure minority groups are included in census
categories.
Kamran Chaudhry, Lahore - pakistan August 8, 2016.
As the Pakistani government prepares for the long awaited population census,
Christian human rights activists are lobbying for dependable data about religious
and other minorities.
"The question about religion ignores separate enumeration of Sikh, Buddhists,
Jews, Kalash [ancient tribes of Chitral district]," said Peter Jacob, the Catholic
director of the Centre for Social Justice. "Such omissions marginalize smaller
communities further. The nomadic gypsy communities and transgender people
are also omitted categories."
"Enumerators' training should include special instructions, sensitizing them about
importance of religious minorities and recording their correct and complete
particulars," he said.
Jacob was speaking at an Aug. 4 seminar in which speakers discussed the
challenge of holding the first credible population census in 17 years. The
government of Pakistan has stated that the census will be conducted after March
2017.
Several speakers also urged for the need to identify transgender people and
persons with disabilities in the upcoming census. Raza Ali, a researcher, expressed
his reservations about the "religion" column in the questionnaire used in 1998
census.
"There was no method to count the Ahmadis [a sect considered heretical by
mainstream Muslims] who consider themselves Muslims," he said. "The question
of identifying faith in census is complicated."
Politicians belonging to minority religious groups such as Christians, Hindus and
Sikhs have long been demanding an increase in their seats in the National
Assembly of Pakistan and provincial assemblies proportional to their numbers in
the population. In 2008, the national parliament increased from 210 to 342 seats
but the reserved seats for minorities stood still at 10. There is currently a 5
percent employment quota for minorities in federal jobs, educational institutions
and government schemes.
According to Cecil Shane Chaudhry, executive director of the Catholic bishop's
National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), the census could be a big step
towards mainstreaming minority communities.
"Credible data and a true classification of religion is of paramount importance for
the development of non-Muslim Pakistanis," he said. "But this does not seem to
be important in the national agenda [and] we only have inaccurate estimates of
those who have migrated and sought asylum in other countries."
Before the separation of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) in 1971, Pakistan
had 77 percent Muslims and 23 percent religious minorities. The 1998 census
found 96 percent of the total population was Muslim. NCJP also held a self-census
in three sub-districts of Punjab that same year.
"The parallel exercise revealed gaps in enumeration in remote areas [so] now we
focus on filling these gaps," said Peter Jacob former executive secretary of the
commission. "The struggle of minorities' rights, their social status and religious
freedom is linked with the headcount. Diverse communities must express their
concerns."
Kashif Kamal, Director of Helpline Ministry of Human Rights, blames forced
conversions of Hindu girls in Sindh province and the persecution of Ahmadis and
Christians for the decrease in minorities' population.
"The sense of under-representation of different social, religious and cultural
groups causes resentment which has repercussions on peace and progress in all
respects, besides the ramifications in social, physical and economic planning," he
said quoting a position paper released at the seminar.
Christians leaders have long maintained that a proper enumeration of religious
minorities in the census is required so that the legitimate interests of the
minorities are constitutionally provided for and not remain subservient to the
majority's goodwill.
Published in UCANEWS, August 8th, 2016.