The government has said it will not tolerate any individuals spreading misleading information about the forthcoming National Population and Housing Census, scheduled for August next year.
Speaking here on Tuesday, Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children Dorothy Gwajima said perpetrators of false information on people’s count will be squarely dealt with by the government.
“This is an essential exercise that serves as a critical baseline for the nation’s future development plans, we will therefore not spare anyone making fun of the exercise,” warned the Minister while launching training for participants on pilot research on the reproductive, child health and malaria indicators in Tanzania 2021-2022.
The Minister also urged Kilimanjaro residents to shy away from such peddlers, instead turn out in large numbers for the much awaited exercise.
“This will greatly help the government to prepare its development plan so that everyone is brought on board,” she explained.
Commenting on training, Dr Gwajima was hopeful that the findings gathered from the researches would help the government evaluate past national programs related to reproductive and child health.
She added: It will also assist the government in improving people’s health welfare.
For her part, the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Director General Albina Chuwa, said the research on the reproductive, child health and malaria indicators in Tanzania 2021-2022, would be the fifth to be conducted in the country since 1991/1992.
“Our office and that of our colleagues in Zanzibar is responsible for providing accurate and reliable statistics that will lead the government to plan development processes more accurately, therefore this research is very important”, insisted the NBS boss.
According to Ms Chuwa, the use of technology in this year’s census is expected to reduce the head count time from the initial one hour to 30 minutes.
Next year’s census will be the country’s sixth population survey to be carried out since independence. According to NBS, the first census was conducted in 1967.
The 2012 population census’ results indicated a population of 43,625,354 million in Tanzania mainland, and 1,303,569 in Tanzania Zanzibar.
A census is when a government collects information about its people.
This generally includes demographic data such as household population, religion and ethnicity. Censuses are usually carried out every 10 years.