Preliminary enumeration of the 2010 Population and Housing Census (PHC) begins today with the counting of institutional population and listing of houses and structures in the country. Institutional population include students resident on campuses in secondary and tertiary institutions, patients on admission at various health facilities, as well as prison inmates. The six-day exercise will end on Sunday, September 26, 2010, on which midnight marks the beginning of the actual census. The data collected from the enumeration of the institutional population will be validated later during the national census in order to avoid discrepancies, such as double counting. The head of the Publicity and Education Unit of the National Census Secretariat, Mr David Kombat, who made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said census enumerators were being despatched to begin the listing of houses and structures, beginning today. He said some of the enumerators who were assigned to areas that fell within the rain belt of the country, had been equipped with raincoats and Wellington boots to enable them to cope with the terrain. He advised the public whose houses and/or structures were not listed by the end of the exercise to contact the Census Secretariat on its hot-line for prompt response. About 50,000 enumerators completed their training yesterday to undertake the enumeration exercise, which, for the first time in the history of the country will include data collection on disability issues and information, and communication technology (ICT). Mr Kombat said enumeration of the floating population, which includes guests, in hotels, passengers of all modes of transportation and people without permanent residential structures such as 'kayayei' (female head porters), would begin at 7 p.m. on the night of Sunday, September 26, 2010. He dismissed suggestions that some agitation that characterised the training of the enumerators might undermine the success of the census. "We have resolved all the issues," he said, bubbling with confidence. During the training exercise, some of the enumerators complained about the quality of food served them, but Mr Kombat said the complaint was confined to Ablekuma Central. He added that the issue was dealt with by changing the matron who was initially engaged to prepare the food. In another instance at the beginning of the training programme, there were reports that a District Chief Executive in the Northern Region had tampered with the list of enumerators shortlisted for training in that particular district and allegedly included the names of persons who had not been shortlisted. According to Mr Kombat, that issue has also been resolved, maintaining that only qualified applicants were engaged as enumerators for the census. Source: Daily Graphic