Kolkata: Amid protests by a section of schoolteachers demanding that Census work be treated as official “on-duty” assignment, the Census authorities on Monday clarified that the exercise is an honorarium-based engagement and would largely have to be carried out beyond school hours. However, officials said district magistrates and municipal commissioners would have the discretion to decide the duty schedule of enumerators in their respective jurisdictions.Addressing a media conference, Census director Nikhil Pawan Kalyan said the workload assigned to enumerators was manageable and could be completed with limited fieldwork each day. “Each enumerator will cover 150 to 200 households. Over a period of 30 days, they will have to visit around five to 10 households a day. Even if they work beyond school hours or on holidays, the fieldwork is unlikely to exceed two hours a day. This is how the process is being conducted across India,” Kalyan said.The first phase of the Census exercise in Bengal is being carried out by nearly 1.7 lakh enumerators and around 30,000 supervisors, the majority of whom are schoolteachers.Kalyan said teachers, who form the backbone of the enumeration workforce, would receive an honorarium of Rs 9,000 for the first phase and Rs 15,000 for the second phase.The clarification comes amid growing resentment among a section of teachers, who argue that Census duties should be counted as official work and performed during working hours. “No on-duty, no Census duty. We are teachers first and Census workers later. If you can take unconstitutional steps by not giving ‘on duty’ despite the Act…then we will not leave our students and academic responsibilities. Appoint officials from other department where the students are not hampered directly. Unreasonable actions will not be tolerated in a democracy,” an enumerator wrote on social media, reflecting the sentiment among some teachers opposing the arrangement.The issue has also reached Calcutta High Court. More than 31 teachers have moved the court challenging the requirement to perform Census duties after school hours and on weekends. The petitioners argued that many teachers travel 40 to 60 km daily from districts to govt schools in Kolkata. After completing classes between 10 am and 4 pm, they are expected to conduct Census work in separately assigned areas. If unable to do so on weekdays, they would have to undertake the exercise on Sundays, their only weekly holiday.
