Fujairah Surveyors Begin Knocking on Doors Tonight

One of 110 surveyors (women and men) will be knocking on your door in Fujairah sometime between today (1 May 2011) and the end of the month, as part of the Fujairah Data Updating or Tehdees ul Bayanat (Census).

The surveyors completed their training on Saturday and they serve under one of eight supervisors that cover the emirate of Fujairah.

Stages 1 & 2

The first two stages of the Data Updating (which started on 16 January 2011) involved a counting of all the residences and establishments in the emirate.

Stage 3

This third and final stage is the updating of statistics on the Fujairah population. It involves talking with residents and asking them a series of questions about themselves and other Fujairah-based family members in the home.

Ruler’s Decree

Each of the trained surveyors will be identified by the wearing of a Statistics Center name tag and ID.

They will also be carrying copies of the official letter from His Highness, Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Member of the UAE Supreme Council and the Ruler of Fujairah, in which he decreed that this census be undertaken in 2011.

In this letter, His Highness explains that information will be received with respect for personal privacy and that the information given by residents will be valuable as the government continues its work of urban and rural planning.

Process

The surveyor will ask you questions, your information will be put into a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant or hand-held computer) and at the end of the day the surveyor’s supervisor will lodge that information into a government server (main computer) for collecting and analysis.

Language Challenges

The Fujairah population is comprised of people from many different cultures and languages and to this end the Statistics Center is matching surveyors according to known concentrations of language groups. Many of the surveyors know more than one of the main languages spoken in Fujairah.

Visiting Hours

All surveyors have jobs during daytime hours so they are most likely to visit homes between 4.00pm-8.00pm.

Related

Data Collection in Fujairah is a Team Affair, FIF, 18 January 2011.

People Count in Fujairah, FIF, 16 January 2011.

Data Updating in Fujairah Conducted by Surveyors with PDAs, FIF, 29 December 2010.

Fujairah Ruler Orders Census in 2011, FIF, 26 December 2010.

Geoff Pound

This article is also posted in the Fujairah in Focus—Facebook Page.

Images: From top to bottom— Mr. Abdullatif and Mr. Amer, two of the eight supervisors; Mr Raheel Anwar, a member of the team at the Fujairah Statistics Center with special responsibility for IT and the technological training for the Data Updating process; M. Walayat Khan, a civil engineer from Peshawar, who will be surveying people in the Al Hayl area of Fujairah where the predominant languages are Asian—Urdu, Hindi, Bengali .