AMN / July 3 2015 @ 12:56PM
NEW DELHI: Almost after eight decades, the Government today released the Socio-Economic and Caste Census. Releasing the census here, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the document would be essential for policy makers both at Centre and state level and the document will form the basis of helping government target groups for support in terms of policy planning. He added that the data will help in identifying the root causes of poverty.
Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said, the government will use the caste census for better data on household growth. He added that government now has regionally reliable data for rural households through the socio-economic caste census. Rural Development Ministry had begun the exercise for the census in 2011.
The provisional socio-economic data for Rural India provides useful data on households regarding various aspects of their socio-economic status. Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with salaried income are close to 10 percent. The percentage of Scheduled Caste households paying income tax was 3.49 per cent while Scheduled Tribe tax-paying rural households were mere 3.34 per cent.
This is the first such Census was released in 1932 and contains various details with regard to specific regions, communities, caste and economic groups and measures the progress of the households in India.
I – Key Findings from Rural India
| 1. | Total Households in the Country (Rural plus Urban) | 24.39 Crore |
| 2. | Total Rural Households | 17.91 Crore |
| 3. | Total Excluded Households (based on fulfilling any of the 14 parameters of exclusion – i. motorized 2/3/4 wheeler/fishing boat; ii. Mechanized 3 – 4 wheeler agricultural equipment; iii. Kisan credit card with credit limit of over Rs. 50,000/-; iv. Household member government employee; v. households with non-agricultural enterprises registered with government; vi. Any member of household earning more than Rs. 10,000 per month; vii. Paying income tax; viii. Paying professional tax; ix. 3 or more rooms with pucca walls and roof; x. owns a refrigerator; xi. Owns landline phone; xii. Owns more than 2.5 acres of irrigated land with 1 irrigation equipment; xiii. 5 acres or more of irrigated land for two or more crop season; xiv. Owning at least 7.5 acres of land or more with at least one irrigation equipment. ) | 7.05 Crore(39.39%) |
| 4. | Automatically included (based on fulfilling any of the 5 parameters of inclusion – 1. Households without shelter; ii. Destitute, living on alms; iii. Manual scavenger families; iv. Primitive tribal groups; v. legally released bonded labour) | 16.50 lakh0.92% |
| 5. | Households considered for deprivation | 10.69 Crore |
| 6. | Households not reporting deprivation | 2.00 crore |
| 7. | Households with any one of the 7 deprivation | 8.69 Crore |
II – Deprivation Data
| D1. | Households with only one room, kuccha walls and kuccha roof | 2.37 Crore13.25% |
| D2. | No adult member in household between age 18 and 59 | 65.15 lakh3.64% |
| D3. | Female headed household with no adult male member between 16 and 59 | 68.96 Lakh3.85% |
| D4. | Households with differently able member with no other able bodied adult member | 7.16 lakh0.40% |
| D5. | SC/ST Households | 3.86 Crore21.53% |
| D6. | Households with no literate adult above age 25 years | 4.21 Crore23.52% |
| D7 | Landless households deriving a major part of their income from manual labour | 5.37 Crore29.97% |
III – Sources of Household income
| 1. | Total Rural Households | 17.91Crore |
| 2. | Cultivation | 5.39 Crore30.10% |
| 3. | Manual Casual labour | 9.16 Crore51.14% |
| 4. | Part time or full time domestic service | 44.84 lakh2.50% |
| 5. | Rag picking, etc. | 4.08 lakh0.23% |
| 6. | Non Agricultural own account enterprise | 28.87 lakh1.61% |
| 7. | Begging/charity/alms | 6.68 lakh0.37% |
| 8. | Others ( including government service, private service, PSU employment, etc. | 2.50 Crore14.01% |
The Ministry of Rural Development has taken a decision to use the SECC data in all its programmes. SECC data would have meaningful use in Housing for all, Education and Skills thrust, MGNREGA, National Food Security Act, interventions for differently able, interventions for women led households, and targeting of households/individual entitlements on evidence of deprivation, etc. The household data is also available for planners of programmes at State, district, Block, Gram Panchayat and village level. SECC provides an opportunity to simultaneously address the multi-dimensionality of poverty by addressing the deprivation of households in education, skills, housing, employment, health, nutrition, water, sanitation, social and gender mobilization and entitlement.
The use of the NPR TIN Number across programmes affords an opportunity to track the progress of households over the years. SECC truly makes evidence based targeted household interventions for poverty reduction possible. It paves the way for a Mission Antyodaya to work simultaneously in addressing the poverty of households through a Gram Panchayat Poverty Reduction Plan. The Ministry of Rural Development, in consultation with States, is trying to implement a convergent, integrated poverty reduction plan with Gram Panchayats and deprived households as priority.