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Census takers in talks to overcome gated community hurdles

Published:Thursday | October 20, 2022 | 12:09 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
Carol Coy, director general of STATIN.
Carol Coy, director general of STATIN.

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) has expressed concern that some gated communities could be excluded from the island’s 15th population and housing census because of access challenges. STATIN Director General Carol Coy said that the...

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) has expressed concern that some gated communities could be excluded from the island’s 15th population and housing census because of access challenges.

STATIN Director General Carol Coy said that the agency is working with strata managers and property managers to facilitate access to census takers.

Without that permission, she told The Gleaner, those Jamaicans would not be captured in the census, which is critical for the development of government policies on housing and welfare, among other issues.

In the last few years, there has been an increase in the construction of gated communities across the island.

Coy said census area managers work closely with the police and they avoid communities where there are flare-ups of violence until some normalcy has returned.

“The persons we use are familiar with these areas, so usually, they can advise that it is safe at this point or it is not safe,” she said.

In cases where no one is at home after repeated visits, a call-back card is left and households are referred to regional coordinators or area managers.

Coy said the last resort is to get a count of the number of people living in the dwelling from a neighbour. However, this option could mean that other critical data is not collected.

The director general could not ascertain what percentage of the census data has been collected since commencement in September.

STATIN has set a year-end deadline, but Coy noted that the data-collection period can be extended.

Data is collected by enumeration districts, which average 150 to 200 households.

“The completion is based on how a census taker has canvassed an enumeration district. People are in their districts now, so they might finish maybe half, but it’s at the end of that list that we would assess where we are with the progress of the census,” Coy said.

She explained that census takers are in the early stages of data collection and STATIN has not yet assessed the general response of Jamaicans.

So far, there have been no reports of major hiccups.

“We have regional coordinators and area managers in the field, and so when issues arise, they usually can deal with it from that level. If it’s something greater, they will escalate it,” Coy said.

She added that there is a shortfall of census takers, a situation that is not unique to Jamaica.

“At this point, I am not sure what percentage. We had aimed to train about 8,000 census takers and supervisors, and I think we trained approximately 7,000, and this is an ongoing process. If there are shortages, our supervisors who are on the ground can do some recruitment and send these persons to us in the head office for us to process,” Coy said.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com