Ambit of economic census to be wider

The subsequent Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) is more likely to take a broader view of deprivation parameters to incorporate outreach of public welfare schemes and progress in diet, housing, ingesting water, sanitation, electrical energy and connectivity to determine the nation’s poor, senior officers indicated on Sunday.

The centre can be contemplating a dynamic registry, which might be up to date usually, in an try and make the state’s focused interventions more practical, the officers mentioned.

An idea notice on “poverty measurement in India” was ready by the Union rural growth ministry final month whereas the federal government arrange a high-level panel with the mandate of updating the SECC and minimising “exclusion and inclusion errors”.

The panel is made up of the Registrar General of India, director basic of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), chief of the National Statistical Organisation (NSO), the city and rural growth ministry secretaries and a member of the coverage think-tank Niti Ayog.

The transfer comes as the primary SECC turns into almost a decade previous. And because the SECC’s outcomes have been introduced in 2011, a number of new welfare schemes to offer free connections of cooking gasoline, energy and water for the poor have been rolled out; different schemes reminiscent of free housing or ability growth programmes have been allotted larger budgets.

“There is definitely a need to take a new look into determining poverty. In the first SECC, kuchcha houses were a parameter but now, the government has completed 11.7 million houses under the Awas scheme for the rural poor. And aspirations for the poor have also changed. We may need to look into the delivery of benefits such as Ayushman Bharat, improved education facilities and Ujjwala {scheme of free cooking gas connections} and observe change in socio-economic status apart from the basic needs,” a member of the panel mentioned on situation of anonymity.

To make sure, the second SECC will take a while for completion; the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed work on the 2021 census, which had been on account of get underway. Preparations are underway for the launch of the train.

The idea notice ready by the agricultural growth ministry highlights how the C Rangarajan Committee, in its report in 2014, had pitched for a separate all-India rural and concrete poverty line baskets to incorporate “food items that ensure recommended calories, protein & fat intake and non-food items like clothing, education, health, housing and transport.”

The notice, taking a wider, multi-dimensional view of poverty additionally highlighted that “the deprivations faced by poor in various fields such as education, health, sanitation etc are not accounted for in the below-poverty line approach. Further, public expenditure on social services like education, health and food security had increased substantially in recent years, which was not captured, by design, in the NSSO’s Consumer Expenditure Surveys and the poverty line derived from these is thus lower than the services actually consumed.”

From a nationwide planning committee in 1938 to the Bombay Plan of 1944 to the 1962 Working Group and within the later levels, the Suresh Tendulkar Expert Group in 2009 has supplied methods and technique of estimating and addressing poverty.

The sweeping Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown that brought about a file 23.9% contraction of the economic system within the quarter ended June may even be stored in thoughts by policymakers after they provide you with a brand new plan for the subsequent SECC.

“Here the role of a dynamic registry is important as we can see how one pandemic or illness is capable of pushing families back to acute poverty. In will help in inclusion of intended beneficiaries,” mentioned the official cited above, noting job losses brought on by the pandemic that had pressured households to pare expenditure on training and meals. “A dynamic registry would help us include families from the protection of public welfare schemes, depending on their current situation.”

The 2011 SECC confirmed that 107.four million Indian households are thought-about disadvantaged of sure primary wants. It additionally confirmed about 30% of rural households have been landless and rely totally on handbook labour to earn a residing.

Himanshu, an affiliate professor with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), believes that it’s not advisable to plan social welfare programmes on the premise of individuals’s spending habits.

“SECC doesn’t take into account any expenditure data. Also, it is very difficult to collect expenditure data in the country as it varies from season to season or on a monthly basis. So, it is not advisable to plan social welfare programmes on the basis of expenditure pattern of people,” he mentioned.