-The Telegraph Shillong: Rural areas in the Northeast have recorded a high percentage of unmarried people while the percentage of women-headed households is a little above the national average. According to the provisional data of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census, 2011, the percentage of people in rural Northeast who have "never married" is 47.42 per cent against the national average of 41.64 per cent. Among the northeastern states, including Sikkim, Nagaland has the...

-The Indian Express The SECC has identified 14 parameters of exclusion. Fulfilling even one of them would result in a household being treated as non-deprived. Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes are the most deprived among rural households in India, despite their suffering much lower levels of landlessness and dependence on manual casual labour compared to the Dalits or Scheduled Castes. According to the results of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, nearly...

-The Hindu Although the SECC’s objectives are not likely to be met, it is a big step towards providing accurate information on the well-being of the people. The release of data for rural households from the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) is only the latest step in India’s tortured history of trying to count its poor. The idea behind the SECC was technocratic. Commissioned by the United Progressive Alliance in 2011,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the direct transfer of cooking gas subsidies into the bank accounts of users will help the government cut its subsidy bill by around Rs 12,700 crore, or around a quarter of the funds spent last year. The minister used the successful transition to direct benefit transfer (DBT) system to argue for extending the scheme to other subsidies, something that...

-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...