Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

The
REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA.
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VJ
square feet oi floor room to occupy. I doubt whether there are many who would
consider this, even as a minimum, generous measure and am inclined to think
that overcrowding might be said to have exceeded all bounds in this or the
other area long before the above minimum was approached. However, the rule
shows that the authorities have recognized the necessity for ensuring the provision
of something approaching adequate house-room in those classes of buildings
in which the law allows the exercise of municipal supervision. It has not been found
practicable to enforce the lodging-house rules in the past quite as stringently
as might have been wished, but it is intended to insist upon them more rigorously
in the future. Even as they stand they are a potent weapon in the hands of the
committee for combating; the evils of overcrowding.
30. In 1891 special measures were taken to secure a full and accurate return
KT„ „ ,, „ ... of the boat population of the province. A form of
No return of boat population. r
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r
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register was trom the very outset prescribed tor boat
landing-places, boat schedules were indented for separately from house schedules
and spejcial rules for the enumeration of the boat population were issued. The
information which these measures were designed to obtain was not required for any
of the Imperial Tables, which were only concerned with two main social classes
of the population, the urban and the rural. At the recent census the rules of procedure,
though they dealt fully with the matter of boat enumeration, contained no
special provision for showing the floating population separate from the land population.
!
reason for this omission is obvious from the 189 1 returns. Where
figures for boat population have been given, as, for instance, in Burma and in
Bengal, a comparison with the figures of the previous census (that of 1881) has
demonstrated their uselessness. In paragraph 34 of his report Mr. Eales subjected
the surprising discrepancies between the divisional totals for the two censuses in
Burma to a minute and painstaking examination. His investigations showed clearly
that it was largely a matter of chance whether a boatman was enumerated on
shore or on his boat and left no doubt as to the impracticability of obtaining reliable
data except at an expense of time and labour that the results would be far
from justifying. In Bengal the general agreement of the figures for 1891 and 1881
suggested the " approximate accuracy of the whole," but even here Mr.
O'Donnell, the Census Superintendent, was forced to admit that in more than one
case the district totals were unquestionably wrong and untrustworthy. Altogether
there was nothing in the records of past enumerations to encourage the abstraction
office to attempt to repeat the efforts of 1891 and 188:1. The matter of the
strength of the boat population is no doubt one of interest in the province, but it
is hoped that the information contained under this head in the Provincial Tables
will suffice for ordinary requirements.