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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Half of rural India needs help -Basant Kumar Mohanty
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: A new survey has shown that one in every two rural households is eligible for targeted government aid - a significant jump from two earlier estimates of those entitled to blanket benefits.

The provisional socio-economic and caste census (SECC) data released by finance minister Arun Jaitley show that almost half the 17.91-crore households in rural India may be considered under various targeted welfare schemes, depending on their specific deprivation. 

The data suggest that 9.05 crore rural households may be excluded from most welfare schemes such as housing, social security pension, low-interest loans and scholarship for poor children.

But many of these "excluded" households may still get food security benefits since the National Food Security Act says that up to 75 per cent of the population in rural areas would get subsidised food.

In 2002, a survey that considered 13 criteria had said 27.5 per cent families in the country, including 28.3 per cent in rural areas, were below the poverty line.

Going by the BPL data of 2002, 28.3 per cent families in rural areas could be considered for benefits under the Indira Awas Yojana or social security pension.

Following the latest survey, that eligible group may have increased to about 49.4 per cent (8.85 crore of the 17.91 crore rural households). But not everybody will necessarily be entitled to all benefits.

The beneficiaries of each welfare scheme will be decided by applying specific criteria based on the nature of the deprivation, said officials in the rural development ministry. For instance, a family which lives in a one-room mud house will be selected for the Indira housing scheme.

State governments will retain a degree of flexibility in relaxing the 14-point criteria for exclusion and can include more people under the food subsidy scheme, officials said.

Although the 2002 survey estimated that 27.5 per cent of families in the country were poor, state governments were giving subsidised food under the public distribution system to 45 per cent - a limit that can go up to 75 per cent in rural areas under the food security rule.

The new data differ from the poverty figures estimated from time to time by the erstwhile Planning Commission.

Last year, a committee headed by economist C. Rangarajan had submitted a report to the plan panel, saying that 29.5 per cent of households, including 31 per cent in rural areas, should be considered poor. The committee considered factors like expenditure incurred by a person on nourishment, clothing, house, education, conveyance and other non-food matters.

According to the 2011-12 price index, to remain outside the poverty line, a family of five is expected to spend Rs 4,860 a month on food and non-food items like clothing and education and have access to safe drinking water in rural areas. It's Rs 7,035 for urban areas.

However, criticised for estimating poverty on the basis of consumption-based criteria, the then UPA government decided to do away with the BPL and non-BPL yardsticks for selecting beneficiaries of welfare schemes. It opted for selection through deprivation data obtained from the socio-economic and caste census.

Launched in 2011, the SECC was conducted by the ministries of rural development and housing and poverty alleviation and the Registrar General of India (RGI) with the support of state governments.

For the first time after Independence, a caste count was added. The RGI, which is handling the caste data, has not released the figures yet.

The rural development ministry said it was concerned with economic data meant for implementing welfare schemes and denied suggestions that the upcoming Bihar elections prevented the government from making the caste data public.