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Silicon Valley frustrates census officials

J M Shenoy

Cabbie B Singh would like to help the census. He surely wants to be counted.

"We show our strength in numbers, everyone respects us," he says. But Singh, who has been driving a cab in Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley, says he does not have spare time to help the census. More important, he says, almost in a whisper, he makes about $ 20 an hour when the going is good.

"Why should I waste my time earning small money?" he asks, referring to the $ 9 to $ 17 the Census Bureau is offering.

"If the Amerki government gives me more money, maybe I help Bill Clinton."

The Census Bureau, preparing for its once-a-decade population count, is trying to recruit several thousand people across the country to reach communities and urge people to respond to census forms. While it says the response has been very good for most parts of the country, in the valley, the Bureau is facing great hurdles.

"The times are good, the economy is booming, and there is hardly anyone who is not gainfully employed," says a programmer. "Of course, there is a question of civic duty but many of us are too busy building start-ups or our own careers.

"But then, can't the census people get volunteers from nearby cities like Oakland, where many people have no jobs?"

In the valley, census officials are looking for help from people who can speak Punjabi, Urdu, Chinese and Vietnamese.

Census Bureau officials say that, with each decade, it has become increasingly difficult to count everyone. The percentage of people who mailed back their census forms declined from 78 per cent in 1970 to 65 per cent in 1990; the percentage of people who were missed altogether increased, as well. The 2000 Census of Population and Housing could continue these trends, officials fear. People missing in the census count means serious problems.

At least 834,000 people were missed in California during the 1990 census, including 397,508 Latinos, 181,489 African Americans and 63,441 Asian Americans, census officials say. As a result, California missed out on at least $ 2.2 billion in federal funding and could lose between $ 2.7 billion and $ 3 billion if there is the same undercount this time.

There are thousands of south Asians, including Indians in California, in and around San Francisco, particularly in Oakland, who need to be counted.

"Money is needed for social welfare programs for the weaker section of the society," says community leader Inder Singh. "It is our civic duty to get everyone counted."

Officials too say they want everyone counted -- in the valley, that would include from billionaire Vinod Khosla to cabbie B Singh, from $ 300 per hour attorney Sanjiv Dhawan to a waiter in a Vietnamese restaurant who may barely be making $ 10 an hour.

Starting in the second week of March, about 120 million American households will be mailed census forms to be returned by April 1. From mid-April to June, census takers will visit households that have not responded.

Census officials have less than two months before their workers will begin going from door-to-door looking for census information. Nationwide, about 50 per cent of the workers have been recruited so far but, in the valley, the percentage is woefully low, they say. The estimate ranges from 25 to 30 per cent of the nearly 200,000 people needed in Sunnyvale, San Jose, Santa Carla and neighboring cities.

Though there are several colleges and universities, including Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley in the area, officials find it hard to lure students in.

"Many students are busy working for hi-tech companies," says a Stanford University computer science graduate. "They are too anxious about their future."

Richard Lu, manager of a census office, told reporters this week that in Silicon Valley, they had to compete with the hi-tech industry.

"It is a real challenge for us. We have a lot of work to do.''

The Census Bureau, for the first time, has begun advertising in a big way, spending over $ 160 million. It will also send census takers to temples, churches, gurdwaras and community organizations.

It has also received permission from the government to hire non-citizens to increase the number of bilingual and multicultural workers.

Interested in a census job? Call (888) 325-7733.

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