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Govt releases Socio-Economic and Caste Census


Socio-Economic and Caste census (SECC)-2011 is a study of socio economic status of rural and urban households and allows ranking of households based on predefined parameters.It has threecensus components which were conducted by three separate authorities –

  • Census in Rural Area – Department of Rural Development (DoRD).
  • Census in Urban Area – Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA).
  • Caste Census – Ministry of Home Affairs: Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner of India.

About SECC

The Ministry of Rural Development Government of India, started the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, in June 2011 through a comprehensive door to door enumeration across the country.This is the first time such a comprehensive exercise has been carried out for both rural and urbanIndia.Also this is the first paperless census conducted on hand-held electronic devices by theGovernment

Objectives of SECC -2011 are:

  • To enable households to be ranked based on their Socio- Economic status. State Governments can then prepare a list of families living below the poverty line.
  • To make available authentic information that will enable caste-wise population enumeration of the country.
  • To make available authentic information regarding the socio economic condition, andeducation status of various castes and sections of the population.

Key findings of the SECC

The total households in the country are 24.39 crore, of which 17.91 crore live in villages. Out ofwhich, 10.69 crore households are considered as deprived.

  • 21.53%, or 3.86 crore, families living in villages belong to SC/ST categories.
  • Only 4.6% of all rural households in the country pay income tax.
  • For sources of household income 9.16 crore households (51.14%) depend on manual casual labour followed by cultivation (30.10%).
  • The data also reveals that 5.37 crore (29.97%) households in rural areas are “landless deriving a major part of their income from manual labour“.
  • There are 2.37 crore (13.25%) families in villages that live in houses of one room with ‘kaccha’walls and roof.

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