Some find it easy, more find it less so

Online convenience: A screenshot of the sign-up page in the e-Census website.

PETALING JAYA: I (Allison Lai), logged on to the Statistics Department’s website and checked out the necessary procedure to fill up the e-Census.

I reached “ecensus.mycensus.gov.my/landing” and proceeded to sign up as a first-time user, where I provided my full name, email address and contact number.

Then I received an email asking me to verify my email address, followed by another email soon after confirming my pre-registration.

I was also given an invitation code, which I was required to key in while logging in to fill in the e-Census when I was ready.

There are several things to prepare prior to filling in the e-Census -- the personal details of each and every member in the household including their full names, MyKad numbers and their relevant medical history.

I chose to complete the task another day to get all information ready. I received several reminders.

I did the e-Census from my mobile phone on a Monday afternoon and there was no problem logging in.

I spent slightly over an hour to fill in all the relevant details of my five other family members and me.

I did stop in between answering the questions and continued later, because the auto-save function of the forms will ensure the data I had entered were not lost.

I could go back to the previous fields to change my answers and had no problems switching between the pages under different household members.

I think the digital form is sensitive in capturing all data and allows no discrepancies -- if you say you have six members in the household, then you have to fill all their details before you can click submit.

Navigation-wise, the e-Census is more suitable for the tech-savvy bunch as the page and interface could be tricky to handle on a smaller screen, as warning messages may be overlooked.

I would suggest anyone who wishes to do the e-Census to access it from a computer, as a wider and clearer view would ease the process.

A 41-year-old marketing executive who wanted to be known as Lim, however, found the e-Census tedious as there was a lot of information to fill.

“I had to fill up the same columns four times for the four persons living in the house. For one person, I think there are more than 10 pages. I gave up halfway. I received reminders but I ignored them, ” added Lim.

She said the e-Census also asked personal questions that she was not comfortable with.

“Why does the government want to know how many times I ate with the people in my house?” she asked.

Anthony Pillai, 31, a chef, said that he was lazy and did not see the point of completing the e-Census.

“I think the government should explain why the data from the census is important. What do they do with the data? Until today, I do not know why they need all that personal information from us, ” he said.

A real estate agent identified as Tan said she took her time to fill the e-Census as it was not the deadline yet.

“My friend told me there are several pages to fill. I live with two other family members so that means I have to do extra, ” the 35-year-old said.

John Lee, 27, an IT professional, said he did not receive an invitation postcard for the e-Census and he was “not aware of such a thing”.

Freelancer Muhamad Farid Ali, 34, said he was also not aware but since he does now, he may do it when he is free next week.