Socio Economic Caste Census

We have heard of Socio-Economic Caste census since June 2011 after the national census 2011. But do we need such a census? what purpose it serves? what are its tasks? what is its significance? The answers to all these questions are dealt with in this article briefly. 

The article covers the following broad topics:

• Socio Economic caste Census
• Aim of the census:
• Who is carrying out this census?
• Process:
• Poverty line controversy and solution provided by secc:
• Difficulties in fixing the line and a standard formula
• Tendulkar committee and its figures
• Supporters of Tendulkar committee say
• Methodology of SECC and its advantages:
• Exclusion criteria
• Inclusion Criteria
• Deprivation Indicators
• Advantages of SECC over other surveys
• Critics

Census:

• Origin Latin word – A count of adult males fit for military service[initial usage].
• Now anything that goes with periodic collection of data is termed a census.
• United Nations defines – A periodic collection of data, with universality [reaching out to everyone], simultaneity [covering the data collection within the marked period in reasonable span of time] and periodicity [maintaining the regular collection of data]. Also it recommends population censuses be taken at least every 10 years.

Now we shall have a look at the recently going Socio economic caste census, its necessity, significance.

Socio Economic caste Census

Aim of the census:

• Authentic information on the caste wise population status of the country.
• Helping the understanding of socio economic status of the people on caste lines for better planning, understanding the impact of policy measures taken so far.
• The most essential objective - determination of the population Below Poverty Line and identifying the beneficiaries for future welfare programs.

Who is carrying out this census?

• This census is a follow up BPL census 2002, to overcome its shortcomings and to update details further.
• The census is carried out by the Govt. of India, under the ministry of rural development [not the Home ministry].
• And this census not conducted under the census of India act 1948 essentially because this census intends to put all information except caste details in public domain whereas census act mandates not to reveal the info collected in public domain.

Process:

• Plan by district collector/district magistrate.
• An enumerator visits each household in person, presents the questionnaire, gets the details.
• The details are digitized then and there by a data entry operator accompanying the enumerator with a handheld tablet [techie!!!] to avoid reporting errors, easy verification.
• The details are registered with the national population register, cross verified with the panchayat and put up in the gram sabha for verification by public.
• This is regarding the process. Also SECC is significant as it deals with some sensitive issues. Lets get an overall idea about these.

Poverty line controversy and solution provided by secc:

• United Nations defines poverty: Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation

• Poverty line is a line of demarcation provided to identify the weaker, vulnerable sections of the society who cannot meet even their minimum food requirement [measured in terms of calorific intake].
• Every time we try to fix this line there is a conflict of interest between the people and state because:
• This line also decides the beneficiaries for  government programs like Targeted PDS, Indira Awas Yojana, food security entitlements etc., which depend on poverty line standards and hence gets huge public attention. Thus the public wish a wider boundary for a wider net to get into list of beneficiaries.
• Obviously lots of politics is also involved.
• And this line is a feedback to prove the outcomes of the state’s welfare programs and hence the state will be happy and satisfied only if the numbers are low = conflict of interest.
• Also represents India in international arena, surely we do not want to cut a sorry figure, as a failed welfare state. So a tug of war always happens in pushing this line up or down.

Difficulties in fixing the line and a standard formula:

• Poverty is a relative concept, now our needs may be a basic meal, but as the nation progresses we define minimum requirement to be a nutritious meal = directly dependent on consumption pattern, economic status.
• This problem popped up while determining the current poverty line also, how much calories to consider? Whether to include other expenditures like health, education or not etc.,
• Second the regional i.e., rural – Urban divides and the corresponding inflation level variations which pose a problem in arriving at a universal, consensual figure.

Tendulkar committee and its figures:

• Last year erupted the controversy when the planning commission in an affidavit filed in the supreme court accepted the poverty line figures of Suresh Tendulkar committee – that only persons earning less than Rs.32/person/day and Rs.26/person/day in Urban and Rural areas respectively will be considered as person below poverty line.
• But due to public uproar later relented this line is not going to be used in identifying beneficiaries for government programs and only the figures given by SECC to be considered.

Supporters of Tendulkar committee say:

• First committee which considered expenditure on health and education as basic requirements.
• The committee in itself was constituted to adjust earlier poverty line [1994] figures in alignment with inflation levels of 2004-2005 and not for devising newer methods.
• The committee itself clarified their figures cannot be utilized for beneficiary identification.

Methodology of SECC and its advantages:

• Methodology of poverty line determination in rural areas based on: Saxena committee recommendations and for urban areas it is based on Hashim committee recommendations.
• SECC proposes a methodology to rank the houses, based on which we can arrive at poverty line. It proposes some automatic inclusion, some automatic exclusion criteria and some deprivation indicators to rank the houses.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• If you happen to possess a motorized 2 wheeler, 4 wheeler, telephone connection, or more than 2.5 acres of irrigated land with irrigation equipment, a govt. employee [list not exhaustive] then you will automatically be excluded.
• Inclusion Criteria:
• Households without shelter, primitive tribal groups, manual scavengers, bonded laborers, people living on alms are automatically included.
• Deprivation indicators:

1. Households with only one room, kucha walls and kucha roof
2. No adult member between the ages of 16 and 59
3. Female headed households with no adult male member between 16 and 59
4. Households with disabled member
5. SC/ST households
6. Households with no literate adult above 25 years
7. Landless households deriving a major part of their income from manual labour.

Model SECC enumeration sheet

Advantages of SECC over other surveys:

• Simple, understandable criteria for identifying BPL beneficiaries. Reduces confusion, increases transparency.
• Data in public, put up for verification in gram sabhas empowers public.
• Use of tablet PC ensures reduction in data entry errors while converting manual records to digitized form, as in SECC data entered directly in database, cross verified by the public.

Critics:

• In enumeration provision for trans-genders not provided.
• Information of caste details may be misused, more casteisation of politics may happen.
• Basic amenities like a telephone connection, motorized two wheeler possession is considered a luxury.
• Tablet PC usage may pose some difficulties like distancing of people [unawareness of people to technology], not all gram sabhas are comfortable in their usage.

Summarily:

1. SECC- One other census to load the state with authentic information about its citizens.
2. A look back at the socio-economic development of the people through a prism of caste background to target future welfare programs with much more precision.
3. A census trying to overcome the shortcomings of its earlier precedents and trying to address the much sensitive issue of poverty line demarcation.
4. Conducted under the supervision of ministry of Rural development.

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