Students being compelled to work as census takers

The National Statistics Committee has insured interviewers in the forthcoming census with each entitled to a coverage of 3.3 million rubels ($1,100) if one is murdered or raped, Valyantsina Lipnevich, an official with Minsk’s Main Statistics Office, told ERB.  

The coverage will be up to one million ($360) for minor harm, she added.

The census will taken from October 14 to 24. The National Statistics Committee will rely mostly on university students. Some students have complained on their blogs that university administrations force them to work as interviewers.

Lipnevich says that students have an obligation to take the interviews. “Under the law, if they have read it, this is a state duty. If a university designates them, they must do the job,” she said.

A secretary for the dean of the Philosophy Department at Belarusian State University (BDU) said that students will get paid 60,000 rubels (less than $60) for ten days’ work as an interviewer.

“The 3rd and 4th year students majoring in Russian and Belarusian philosophy will be involved. I have drafted a directive allowing them to miss classes during the census,” she said.

She added that the dean rejected requests by several students who sought to back out.

Lipnevich said that police officers will accompany interviewers on visits to potentially aggressive tenants and troublemakers.

Asked whether police officers will accompany census takers on visits to apartments inhabited by heavy drinkers, Lipnevich said, “You cannot know all of them.”