CAA-NRC fears: Enumerators of uncontroversial surveys rebuked by Old Hyderabad's Muslims

Hapless enumerators engaged in various government studies are facing the wrath of fretful Muslims in the old city areas of Hyderabad.

Several among the minority community concentrated in the old quarters of Hyderabad are objecting to any kind of survey in the wake of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and concerns over NRC implementation nationwide.

In the last few days, enumerators on illiteracy rate and tourism-related NSS data collection were obstructed from carrying their duties in Chandrayangutta, Old Malakpet and other areas.

These areas are represented by the AIMIM in the assembly and the Lok Sabha. The party chief Asaduddin Owaisi took a stiff resistance stand on CAA-NRC. In a meeting at Kurnool, Owaisi even implied that he will take bullets in the chest but would not show documents.

On Tuesday, two Community Resource Persons engaged by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for a “Survey of illiterate persons above 18 years” were blocked and grilled by the locals demanding to know why they were in the locality.

In a video of the incident accessed by DH, the two women enumerators were seen surrounded by men questioning menacingly, “We never heard of this! Where is the Government Order of this survey? We know what is happening in India now.”

Though the visibly tense women sought to explain, the locals refused to believe and seized the survey material along with the GHMC provided enumerator identity cards saying that they lacked official seal and signature.

GHMC officials said they took the matter to the Police.

“The two ladies are our enumerators. Those men were called to the police station, where they apologized and returned the material,” said Shirley Pushyaragam, GHMC deputy commissioner, Chandrayangutta.

GHMC commissioner Lokesh Kumar said that the survey would go on, while creating awareness among the locals about the need for such records.

However, the incident has left the enumerators shaken. “I was very scared. Though we belong to the same area; those men were just not listening to our explanation. The work provided me Rs 250 per day but as my family is worried, I did not go back to the survey after that day,” Lakshmi (name changed) told DH.

On Wednesday another video said to be from Old Malakpet emerged where two more women were obstructed from carrying out a “Domestic Tourism Expenditure” and “Multiple Indicator Survey” as part of the National Sample Survey 78th round.

Though the women carrying an official letter from the Hyderabad District Chief Planning Officer said that such surveys take place regularly, a man heard in the video says, “Yes, but you know the situation in the country now. Who will answer such questionnaire now?”

The man then requested the enumerators to defer such exercises, following which the women left the place.

Amjed Ullah Khan, a leader of Majlis Bachao Tehreek, an offshoot of AIMIM, says such surveys should not be carried without public awareness, “as it creates confusion among the public due to ongoing NPR, NRC fears.”

“It could also put the enumerators’ lives at risk,” Khan says.