New Delhi: The government will use the data of the Social, Economic, and Race Census (SECC) of 2011 to reach the full benefits of government schemes to the lower classes of the country. Right now the Rural Development Ministry only uses SECC data for schemes like its programs and some other departments like Ujjawala Yojana. The Rural Development Ministry is preparing a cabinet note, which will recommend the use of SECC data for the National Food Security Act and many other schemes.
A senior official told EP, “We have to prepare a formula for the selection of eligible people for each subsidy. More needy people will be able to take advantage of the schemes. ‘ The Sumit Bose Committee, which was created to study the usefulness of the data of SECC 2011 for the identification of poor people, in its report, advised using this data for rural development schemes.
The committee also introduced a formula for identifying beneficiaries for special schemes. Poverty line figures were used to identify the beneficiaries of many schemes like Prime Minister Housing Scheme. The government had started using data of SECC 2011 for them through a cabinet note last year.
In addition to the Rural Development Ministry, departments like Health and Electricity have shown interest in using SECC data instead of the poverty line data. Many state governments also want to use this data for their plans. According to SECC data released in July 2015, 62 percent of the country’s rural families are in the disadvantaged category. Of the 17.9 million rural households in the country, 2.37 crore families (about 13 percent) still live in a room, raw walls and raw roofs.
There is no adult person over 25 years of age in more than four crore households, while there are no adult members in the age group of about 65 lakhs between the ages of 18 and 59 years. If there is any discrepancy in the identification of the beneficiary using the poverty line and SECC data, then the SECC data can be considered as it is more scientific and targeted.
