Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley and Hon’ble Minister Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation, Shri Chaudhary Birendra Singh, today jointly released on-line the provisional data from the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 for Rural India. The Report of the SECC 2011 is available on http://secc.gov.in. The management of the Central data base is with the NIC.

SECC 2011 is a unique paperless Census. The enumeration of the data was done using over 6.4 lakh electronic handheld device. Household data was taken from the National Population Register along with the Temporary Identification Number (TIN). At each stage there was an opportunity for transparency and grievance redressal. A total of 1.24 crore claims and objections were received of which 99.7% have already been resolved. Gram Panchayats and Gram Sabhas were involved in this process, besides School Teachers and Data Entry Operators as enumerators. The districts and State Governments have carried out the SECC with the Ministry of Rural Development as the nodal Ministry. Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation carried out the survey in urban areas and the Registrar General, Census of India carried out the caste census.

The provisional socio-economic data for Rural India has been released today. The survey has been completed in all the 640 districts. It is provisional as the final lists are being uploaded in some districts after addressing all the objections received. It is being released as its use in evidence based planning for rural development and poverty reduction needs to be undertaken immediately. It provides very useful data on households regarding various aspects of their socio-economic status – housing, land-holding/landlessness, educational status, status of women, the differently able, occupation, possession of assets, SC/ST households, incomes, etc. SECC provided for automatic exclusion on the basis of 14 parameters, automatic inclusion on the basis of 5 parameters and grading of deprivation on the basis of seven criteria. The data addresses the multi dimensionality of poverty and provides a unique opportunity for a convergent, evidence based planning with a Gram Panchayat as a unit. The data is an opportunity to make evidence based selection, prioritization and targeting of beneficiaries in different programmes.

I - Key Findings from Rural India

II - Deprivation Data

III - Sources of Household income

     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.       

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