A search for Bijnor tells me a sad story

Bijnor is a district and a town in Uttar Pradesh. I try seeing how much population the district has. A government site says there are over 36 lakh people in the district. A site called villageinfo.in says there are approximately six and half lakhs. It’s okay, if no proper count is available, people are always going to jump to their own conclusions.

The surprise is that 2011 census says the urban Bijnor has 1.11 lakhs people.

How’s this deep discrepancy in the population numbers possible?

I’d presume it is because one states the numbers of the district and another states the number in the urban zone? Then, what’s the site telling us, the Villageinfo site?

And how’s one to ascertain the numbers correctly?

Normally, one would have the collector office records. But they aren’t online, at least I cannot see that anywhere. Though, nic.in has a Bijnor collector office link. It does not lead me anywhere.

I go to the MLA office link.

Nothing.

By the way, her name is Suchi.

I go to her Wikipedia page, just through curiosity. And there’s nothing about her. Not even an office link. I do not find a good phone number anywhere too.

It’s funny. As citizens and as tax payers, we are supposed to have Aadhaar cards, PAN numbers, Passports, Election cards and residence documents. In return, the government is as opaque as they come. You do not get any accuracy at all. No uniformity and no responsibility. It’s a stone in the dark. You may get lucky or you may not.

Even the tally of the male and female numbers do not tally with the total number. So, if there’s a sizeable amount of the third genders, why is it not notified?

But a site gladly tells me that a Hindi serial was based here in Bijnor. Maybe that’s praiseworthy. I don’t know.

I find that the women are approximately lower by 6000 numbers in the town. That lesser than the national average. So, I want to see if any cases of female foeticide prevails in the area. I check news sites. Nothing. Nothing at all.

I turn Google to Hindi and check the Hindi sites. Still nothing.

No one cares. Such a skew and no one cares.

I believe farmers from there have also travelled to Delhi and are camped somewhere near Delhi. But no news. Again no one cares.

I try to find a local APMC that must be collecting the produce. Not on any site. Except the local farmers, I think no one else will know. I have to call up locals, if they agree to take calls that is, to get to know more.

Maybe I won’t.

I am too far removed from the action.

Maybe I should forget about Bijnor and have that beer in my refrigerator and chill.

Maybe, complete that half seen “Sunderland” series that I was seeing.

It’s easier.

Far easier than knowing about our own country.

Sunderland, I know now is in the North East of Britain, is a town that has a football stadium called “Stadium of Light” and is a working class town with a very less crime record. All the town details are on one website. And all the police records are public. The economy details are also public. The courts publish their records too.

In a day and half I know far more about Sunderland than I would ever know about Bijnor.

But that’s Britain and am in India and an Indian, right?

Or am I? Are we??