The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has dispelled any notion that the 2010 Population and Housing Census will be used to find out about aliens living in the country or pry into the life of people. It also dismissed fears that the census would be used for the purposes of taxation, and assured the public of absolute confidentiality regarding information they provided in accordance with PNDC Law 135, which enjoined census enumerators to keep information gathered on the exercise confidential. A member of the Census Co-ordinating Team, Mr Kofi Agyeman-Duah, made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra Tuesday. He said information gathered on the exercise would not be divulged to a third party "so people should not fear". He said the census was about getting the requisite information that would enhance decision-making, planning and national development. Mr Agyeman-Duah, therefore, urged all individuals resident in Ghana during the period of the exercise to co-operate with census enumerators to ensure the success of the exercise. "It is our business, it is your business, it is everyone's business", he remarked. The GSS envisages training 50,000 field officers, out of which 43,000, made up of 36,000 enumerators and 7,000 supervisors, would be engaged to undertake the $49 million census, covering every hamlet in the country. The enumerators will be seeking information on demographic, education, economic, health and religious characteristics of every individual living in the country. Mr Agyeman-Duah advised individuals to make such vital information available to their household heads so that enumerators could have access to them. Since the last census in 2000, the number of districts, municipalities and metropolises in the country have increased from 110 to 170, about two-thirds of which, it is said, do not have well-mapped boundaries. Mr Agyeman-Duah said providing requisite information would, therefore, help the development of the districts, adding, "If people don't give us the right information, then what we give out is what planners and decision-makers will use to plan". He said one critical challenge arising out of the 1984 and 2000 Population and Housing Censuses, which the GSS would want to surmount this time, was that education on the essence of the exercise did not go down well with the people. Mr Agyeman-Duah said some people thought because they were not physically present to be interviewed, they were not covered, adding that census was not like survey whereby respondents were personally interviewed. He said a National Publicity and Education Committee under the chairmanship of the Minister of Information would be inaugurated on Friday with the mandate to address some of those challenges. According to him, the committee would be replicated at the regional and district levels subsequently. Mr Agyeman-Duah said currently, the GSS was at the preparatory stage involving field demarcation and office logistics ahead of the census next year. Meanwhile, training of field officers for the 2009 Population and Housing Census pilot pro-ject slated for October and November, this year, is expected to begin next month, according to Mr Agyeman-Duah. The pilot census will cover six districts including Sene, Saboba, Awutu-Senya, Chiriponi and Accra, where coverage will be at Osu Klotey and East Legon, as well as the Commonwealth and Volta Halls of the University of Ghana, Legon. Source: Daily Graphic