They are just numbers
A 15-member team of Census enumerators was scrambling through the narrow lanes of Kalasipalya, finding the ‘homeless’ whose details had to be enumerated by dawn.
About six minutes later, enumerator Shantkumari’s efforts yield some result. “What is your name,” she asked Shankara who was found next to the Lokamata Temple here. It took her another ten minutes before she got his name, the number of children he had (two) and his wife.
Shantkumari and her team have an uphill task: Try and record details of all the homeless in and around Kalasipalya and City Market area.
But they were not the only ones in what seems to be an impossible endeavour.
Another 197 teams were going through the same exercise at all the 198 Bruhat
Bangalore Mahanagara Palike wards, the mandate being clear.
Although Census Operations Director, Karnataka, T K Anil Kumar and his team strongly believed that the task was achievable, members on the far end were heard murmuring: “We’ll need more time to get this done.”
The fear of whether they would find the homeless people at the usual spots was also discussed and some local residents were roped in.
They also took the help of the beat police to wake up such people and get them to answer Census questions.
It is noteworthy that a recent government survey, as reported by Deccan Herald on Monday, had said there were only 2,868 homeless people in the City.
M Ramesh, a Kalasipalya resident, told this newspaper that there would be at least 1,000 shelterless people in Kalasipalya and City Market areas alone.
Yet, only one day of the Census process was allotted to identify such people.
And the teams were all there on the field, covered up to battle the cold after dinner...