Arakan News Agency
Data from last year’s census will be published toward the end of May, an official told The Myanmar Times yesterday. U Myint Kyaing, director general of the Department of Population in the Ministry of Immigration and Population, said the release would be marked with a ceremony in Nay Pyi Taw, though no date had yet been fixed.
The census, the first in more than 30 years, was conducted in 2014 with international funding and support, but amid concerns about the identification of some ethnic groups. In Rakhine State, the government stopped hundreds of thousands of Muslims from taking part because they wanted to self-identify as Rohingya, an ethnic designation it does not recognise. The decision angered donors, as the government had promised it would allow all people in the country to self-identify freely.
U Myint Kyaing said the collation of material had been carried out in accordance with international norms on the basis of help from international advisory teams to ensure that the data were reliable and exact.
“The entire process has been thoroughly examined by international teams,” he said.
The finalised data will be issued in the form of books, CDs and leaflets and will appear on government websites. “We expect to print tens of thousands of books,” he said.
Summarised census data will also be printed in hundreds of thousands of leaflets for public distribution. “The leaflets will be useful at the ward and township level.”
source : MyanmarTimes
