States, including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi stand to lose funds for Centrally-sponsored schemes such as National Food Security Act (NFSA) for 2015-16 in case they do not complete the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) before the next fiscal.
The Union Rural Development Ministry has asked these States to expedite the Census process and publish the draft list at the earliest or face withdrawal of Central funds from the next financial year.
The SECC, launched during the UPA-II regime by the RD Ministry in 2011, aims to identify families and individuals living Below the Poverty line in the rural areas who could be targeted under various programmes.
However, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Rajasthan and Punjab are either yet to complete the Census process or have failed to publish draft lists of all the districts.
Stressing that the collected data will be used for identification of beneficiaries for various central schemes such as NFSA, RD Secretary lC Goyal in a letter to the States said, “We will like assistance to flow to beneficiaries under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes identified only out of this census from the next financial year 2015-16.
“I hope you would not compel us to consider withholding release of financial assistance due to your State for want of adhering to this target.”
The SECC is being conducted in the States with the technical and financial support of the RD Ministry with a view eventually to identify families and individuals living Below the Poverty line in the rural areas who could be targeted under various programmes. The census is way behind two years its scheduled completion date of May 2012.
“As these data are collected in participatory, transparent and scientific manner, many states have decided to use it for identification of beneficiaries for their State-sponsored schemes. For example, State Governments of Bihar, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Rajasthan have taken their state specific data to identify beneficiaries under National Food Security Act and other schemes,” Goyal noted.
The SECC has seven deprivation indicators to rank households on a scale of 0 to 7. Households with the highest deprivation score will have the highest priority for inclusion in the BPl list. Additionally, households without shelter, the destitute, manual scavengers, primitive tribal groups and legally released bonded labourers will have the 'highest priority' for inclusion.
The SECC database will provide policymakers authentic information on caste-wise population break-up in the country. Based on that, the government can evaluate the performance of its past schemes and update them accordingly.