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NEW YORK CITY’S SOUTH ASIAN CENSUS TASKFORCE AND SOUTH ASIAN COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEE ANNOUNCE 2010 CENSUS STRATEGY
New York- A South Asian focused 2010 Census outreach effort for New York City was announced this Thursday at a press conference at the Jackson Diner.
Spearheaded by five South Asian-serving community based organizations, the initiative aims to dramatically increase participation by the city’s South Asian community in this year’s Census. The groups are members of the South Asian Census Task Force-- a new collaborative initiative, and the South Asian Complete Count Committee--an entity endorsed and supported by the United States Census Bureau.
The organizations will be raising awareness by canvassing key neighborhoods, reaching out to cultural and religious centers, the ethnic media, providing information in-language through telephone hotlines devoted to the Census, and creating unique Census materials for the South Asian community. Collectively, the groups—Adhikaar for Human Rights and Social Justice, Chhaya Community Development Corporation, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), and SEVA Immigrant Advocacy Project will be active in the largest South Asian neighborhoods of the city; the Queens neighborhoods of Richmond Hill, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Flushing, Floral Park, and Bellerose. Together, these organizations provide services in 9 South Asian languages.
The Census Bureau is supporting the South Asian Complete Count Committee’s campaign to reach the “hard to count” South Asian communities in New York City as part of its Special Initiative Program. The Complete Count Committee includes a diverse group: faith based institutions like churches, mosques, and temples, elected officials, service based non-profit organizations, and individuals. The South Asian Census Task Force is receiving public support as part of New York State’s program to fund community groups that will work to increase participation by hard-to-count and low response rate populations.
Private funding support has also been generously provided through the Asian American Federation. Some of the organizations also received support from the NYC 2010 Census Funders Initiative (a donor collaborative of The New York Community Trust, New York Foundation, The Durst Foundation, and the Public Interest Projects’ Census Community Outreach Fund). “The Census is currently one of the most critical and urgent issues for our community to be aware of. Public resources and government funding are distributed according to census data. It is estimated that for every ten people not counted in the census, a community loses $30,000 in government funds over ten years until the next census” said Seema Agnani, Executive Director of Chhaya CDC.
The groups have been stressing that immigration status should not prevent anyone from filling out the census form. “Immigration is not even one of the ten questions on the survey. The information on the survey is strictly used for the purpose of counting, and is not shared with any other branch of the government. No one will be punished for filling out the census” said Ravisharon Kaur, a lead organizer with SEVA.The South Asian community of New York City was severely undercounted in the 2000 Census.
The community is clustered in areas that were undercounted in the 2000 Census, and faces a number of other barriers that may hinder Census participation; including language, fear of immigration status, tenancy in illegal housing, and confusion surrounding the race and ethnicity categories on the Census form itself South Asians —immigrants from the regions and border areas of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, as well as the diaspora from the Caribbean and other areas— are one of New York City’s newest immigrant groups and also one of its fastest growing ethnic populations. This population is complex, comprised of various ethnic groups, languages, religions, cultures, and is therefore best reached through a collaborative effort. Further, some segments, particularly Nepali and Tibetan, are relatively new to New York City, and much of this population may not have participated in the prior census.
“About 40% of New York’s Nepali community has limited English capacity, and we estimate that more than half may be undocumented. This population is at an extreme risk of being undercounted and that is why we are putting a lot of effort into educating the community about the Census this year”, said Luna Ranjit, Executive Director of Adhikaar. “As a small, emerging group, the Nepali community has grown under the radar since the last census. Partnering with other organizations of the South Asian Task Force, Adhikaar has been able to leverage resources for reaching out to the Nepali community about the 2010 Census. We hope to have the Nepali presence registered in the 2010 Census, and continue to work to strengthen the community in the next decade”, she went on.
The South Asian Census task-force and its partners are employing a multi-pronged strategy to increase participation in 2010, which includes:
-Determining what outreach materials are available and then creating additional outreach materials as needed in the languages spoken by the target communities, especially Bangla, Hindi/Urdu, Nepali,Tibetan, Punjabi and Gujarati.
-Creating and staffing telephone hotlines for Census related questions in Bangla, Hindi/ Urdu, Nepali, Punjabi and Gujarati.
-Developing partnerships with the ethnic press (Bangla, Indo-Caribbean, Urdu, Nepali, Gujarati and Punjabi) to conduct joint outreach that puts clear, easy-to-understand census information in the hands of their readership.
-Disseminating in-language census materials to form the basis of our outreach.
-Developing a list of organizations and language capacities which will serve as a resource for groups citywide.
-Organizing local citizen coalitions to canvass the community disseminating outreach material at public institutions.
-Conducting door-to-door canvassing in specific neighborhoods, particularly those with a lot of informal housing, such as basement apartments, to alert residents about the upcoming census, informing them of the community value in responding, and dispelling fears.
CONTACT: Seema Agnani, Executive Director, Chhaya CDC, (718) 478- 3848 ext. 13 or Cellular: (917) 306-8033
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