Census: Bhutan Vs Australia
In 1990, I, along with my family, was evicted out of the country after a census that was carried out exclusively in southern Bhutan. Census in Bhutan was a means to determine who is Bhutanese and not which eventually helps government to identify government and formulate policy of eviction. In short, Bhutan’s census in 1990 was to evict people.
The census made my family, along with over 100,000 fellow countrymen, refugees for almost 20 years. We lived under the mercy of UNHCR, donors and the Nepalese government for all these painful days.
One year has passed since I arrived Australia as permanent resident. I am now not only facing census here but working as census officer as well. I was still very young when left the country and have faint picture of how census was carried out. Australia has given me good opportunity to learn what census is and if the census in Bhutan was carried out according to ethics and principles of census.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is carrying out census on August 9 which will determine the number of people living in Australia on that particular night. Contrary to Bhutanese system, where it takes months and months to complete census, Australia is conducting census on one single night. Above that, it is very interesting to learn about secrecy maintained by ABS. None of the personal details collected through census will be accessible to government, governmental and non-governmental agencies. Rather number of headcount will be available to formulating policies. Each council here get 20,000 dollars per head for a period of five years from federal government. And census is crucial to determine the number of people living in a particular area.
Bhutanese, who fled the country because of census, still fear of census. Not as ABS staff but as community worker, I have obligation to carry out census awareness programme to Bhutanese community. The training that I received on Friday turned out to be very useful when I talked to people from my community about census on Saturday. In one presentation, a senior officer from ABS joined us to give more details about census. From early morning, I spoke to three groups in total – imparting information on census, its importance and procedures. By the time I returned home in the evening, after speaking for almost seven hours, I was so tired, exhausted yet excited.
I am excited because, the census is not making me homeless anymore rather encouraging me to be more Australian. The census counts me and recommends the government for more facilities in the area when I live. Every head is very important to bring in development activities and receive government support. The census is making Bhutanese more loyal to Australia, adding responsibilities to service Australia. It was very different to what had happened in our history – census brought in us division, census confiscated our properties and census deprived us of our nationality.
The community people have discussed about two important questions – date of birth and ancestry. There has come consensus among members attending the information sessions that we are writing our ancestry as Bhutan not Nepal. I had come across sparkling debate among our community members during the census in US where some of them opined that our ancestry is Nepal. We the Bhutanese in South Australia are writing Bhutan as our ancestry.
The census will hopefully change the thoughts among community members. Census is not carried out with intention to bring division in society like in Bhutan. Rather it is to help the government to determine appropriate policies and make availability of other services like transport, health, schools, businesses, etc.