An advocacy meeting between the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms held in Yaounde last week revealed some disturbing attitudes in the way and manner national censuses are carried out.

At that meeting the country Director of Sightseers, Dr Joseph Oye is quoted to have said – commenting about the running of censuses in Cameroon – that “some census agents enter households and mention every member except those with disabilities.”

Furthermore, the NGO was somehow praying the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms to be their advocate in ensuring that in the coming general census of the population and future ones, the questionnaire should be conceived in such a manner as to take into account all the concerns of those citizens with all forms of physical challenges which often prevent many of them from taking part in frontline or mainstream activity, leading to their neglect in featuring on census findings which, in principle, are supposed to reflect the main characteristics of the population at any given time.

If the situation described at last week’s meeting is averred, then one must say all the government declarations on an inclusive social policy, one which takes into account all the components of the population without any form of discrimination against the handicapped or other vulnerable sectors of the population, have simply been rhetoric. The very existence of a Ministry of Social Affairs speaks volumes about government’s positive disposition to addressing the problems of the handicapped. So is the existence of the National Centre for the Disabled at Etoug-Ebe in Yaounde.

Financing of the ministry’s activities or budget allotments which very often fall short of expectation is a different ball game because the required political will to address the issue exists. But the question that racks many who observe the functioning of the public assistance system is how government determines its priorities in the absence of any reliable and dependable information on its handicapped people as revealed last week. It is simply scandalous that in the categorization of the population, no special mention is made of handicapped persons.

And this seems to have been going on for a long time without any real effort to change, otherwise how could it be an NGO pleading virtually on its knees to beg for the intervention of the public authorities to include this important segment of the population when considering population characteristics. In the past few years, there has been a heightened cry for those conceiving public buildings and edifices to provide facilities for the physically challenged. There has been some noticeable success in the endeavour, but not good enough to be considered a veritable turnaround in policy or habits.

A general census of the population goes beyond a head count. Successive censuses in Cameroon have often addressed issues beyond the simple counting of humans. It is for this reason that censuses are rightly considered as veritable compasses which help the government in economic and social planning. And if important facts are left out in the exercise, then the whole objective of knowing population characteristics is seriously nipped in the bud.

Counting our disabled and ensuring that all their disabilities are taken into consideration is not a favour. Rather, it is an obligation if the government wants, as it has publicly proclaimed, to promote inclusive social policies especially for the handicapped.