All Work, No Pay for Census Workers

Hundreds of census enumerators in delhi are distraught as the centre has failed to pay their dues even after four years. Yogesh kant reports the anguish.

- Yogesh Kant

Nearly 500 enumerators who carried out the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 in Delhi have claimed that the North East Delhi Census Department is yet to pay the honorarium for their hard work.

“Despite several attempts, the administration is not taking cognisance of the demand,” says Mahipal Singh (name changed), a civil defence volunteer at the SubDivisional Magistrate (SDM) Court, Nand Nagri. “The Census enumerators are supposed to get ₹18,000 and supervisors ₹24,000 each. They are still awaiting their remuneration.”

A senior official at the Census section in the North East Delhi district administration admitted the delay in release of dues while stating that the department had received the funds in August 2015. “Ever since, we have been trying to clear the pending payments of enumerators as early as possible,” he says.

According to a statistical officer at the Census office, the district is divided into six divisions and most of the division enumerators have been awarded their honorarium, except for a few.

In 2012, the Union government selected a Maharashtra-based private company Netwin Infosolutions to register the population of Delhi. The government assigned doorto-door collection of SECC data of Delhi residents to teachers, civil defence volunteers and ASHA workers. “The IT workers, who uploaded the Census data, and the trainers, who trained the enumerators and supervisors for the task, got paid with immediate effect,” sources claim.