A. Latif Baraka: Heba Press
Statisticians from various cities and regions explained to Heba Press a number of difficulties and obstacles they faced during the 2024 National Population and Housing Census in collecting and completing citizens’ data.
They recorded a number of difficulties that they encounter daily with citizens throughout the current month of September, such as most citizens do not cooperate positively with statisticians, and there are cases that refuse to be counted, and we take the example of the city of Agadir, where well-informed sources revealed to “Heba Press” that the agents of the authority had a role similar to that of “firefighters” after intervening in several cases of refusal to participate in the census, or sometimes to resolve disputes between the statistician and the citizen. , a job that has become difficult to accomplish for the authorities in their interventions so that the citizen can provide answers to the questions asked by the statistician.
It was also noted that there was a lack of awareness among citizens about the census and its importance, given that participation in it is an expression of citizenship and the foundation for the construction, modernization and proper planning of future policies.
Statisticians have difficulty controlling the citizen at home, because there are citizens who refuse to open the doors even if they are present, which forces the census taker to wait for hours or to frequent the same addresses without finding their residents, which forces them in these cases, it is necessary to rely on the agents of the authority and move with them. Some specialists resort to… To Sandik representatives in residential communities, to provide them with information on who is in their home and who owns a home but does not live there.
Speaking about the difficulties of the census in the city, they also revealed more than in rural areas, which is noon and evening, the appropriate time for the statistician to meet with citizens.
Some statisticians add that despite the geographical difficulties of rural areas, the rural citizen is more cooperative than his urban counterpart, noting that the Bedouin, despite his limited supplies, provides meals to the guards due to the difficulty of the routes and the lack of restaurants in these remote areas.
