Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

8 REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA.
In town areas Supervisors were supplied with a few additional rules regarding the
record of castes, urban occupations, and the like. All writing at the preliminary
enumeration was done in black ink. Very frequently a first rough copy ot the
entries was made out on plain paper or on parabaiks and copied on to the printed
form after it had been checked by the Supervisor. No real difficulty was experienced
in ascertaining from the people the particulars required for entry m the
schedules. With a few exceptions, the attitude of the enumerated was one ot
indulgent acquiescence.
.
i c In the interval between the completion of the preliminary enumeration
and the night of the i st March the preliminary record,
Testing the preliminary record,
obtained in the manner described above, was checked
Census holidays.
^ Superv - lsorSj Charge Superintendents, and such
other responsible officers of Government as could be spared for this duty
Roughly this period covered the last twenty days of February. The 12th and
the 13th February were gazetted as Census holidays in rural areas in order to
afford Government officers an opportunity of giving two whole days' undivided
attention to this business of checking. Similarly, in Rangoon, on the 1 8th, 19th,
20th, and 2 1 st February all Government offices were closed and the exertions of
all available officers were concentrated on the work of testing. This portion of the
work was done with exceptional thoroughness in Rangoon. In October 1900 a
fortnightly report showing the progress made in Census work in each district was
The final enumeration.
prescribed. From this I was able to obtain a general idea of the amount of testing
work done by superior officers, not only in February, but also during January 1901
and the closing months of 1900.
1 6. On the night of the 1 st March the final stage of the operations was reach-
Between dusk and midnight the Enumerator went
ed.
^ rQund of ^ b j ock and wkh pgn and fed jnk brought
his enumeration book up to date, striking out those persons already shown in
his book who were not present on the occasion of his nocturnal visit and adding
those who were then present but had not been shown in the preliminary record.
Here, again, practically all that he required to know was printed in the shape of a
few plainly worded rules inside the cover of his enumeration book. During the
hours that the enumeration was going on, Charge Superintendents and Supervisors
were expected to exercise as much supervision as was possible over the work of the
officers under them. It is satisfactory to learn that the people were as amenable
at this as at the earlier stages of the operations and put no hindrances whatever
in the wav of the Census officials. A good deal of extra work was thrown
at the last moment on the authorities in those districts where there were pagoda
festivals on the night of the Census. Here a certain amount of additional trouble
was, in the nature of things, inevitable, but there is nothing to show that it was in
any way added to by the deliberate action of the holiday-makers.- There was no
final enumeration in the non-synchronous tracts.
1 7. Inside the end cover of each enumeration book was printed a form designed
to show in a few parallel columns the number of
3533'3110 "
° f the provisional
totals
houses contained in the block—and book—and the
total number of males and females returned as present
at the final enumeration. This form, which was known as the Enumerator's abstract,
it was the Enumerator's duty to fill up on the morning of the 2nd March.
The entry of the totals was accomplished in the presence of the Supervisor, whose
business it was to have arranged beforehand for all his Enumerators to meet him at
some convenient place in his circle, for this express purpose, as soon after the final
enumeration as was practicable. After all the abstracts for the circle had been
thus prepared and duly checked, the Supervisor calculated from them the total
number of houses, of males and of females in his circle, and entered the result in a
circle summary, which he transmitted with due expedition to his Charge Superintendent.
The Charge Superintendent in his turn condensed all the circle sum-
•
maries for his charge into a charge summary and despatched this as soon as
possible to the district headquarters. Here the district summary was compiled
from the various charge summaries and telegrams embodying its contents, that
is to say, giving for the whole district (a) the total number of houses, (b) the total