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The expert group, headed by former Finance Secretary Sumit Bose, set up to study the criteria for allocation of resources to states and identification of beneficiaries under various pro-poor programmes using the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data, presented its report to Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday.
The SECC, on the basis of which the government will identify the beneficiaries of pro-poor schemes, has been concluded, said an official release, and the “expert group’s interim advice has been accepted by the Ministry.”
“Accordingly appropriate guidelines have been issued to make inter–state allocation based on SECC data to cover households under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAG) and the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM),” the release added.
The group has concluded that the use of SECC data and its TIN (Temporary Identification Number) would enable the government to improve the efficacy of its interventions and will result in an improved outcome, the release stated.
“However, the expert group has observed that regular updation and verification of SECC data is a prerequisite to eliminate the need to mount standalone SECC in the long run, which would put an additional burden on public resources,” the release added.
“The SECC has the potential to move from being a census-like socio-economic database to becoming the core of a functioning Social Registry Information System (SRIS)”, the statement said, adding that it has “the potential to streamline programme administration, reduce duplication of benefit and fraud, saving on time and costs for both programme applicants and services providers, monitoring the living standards of beneficiaries over time, better targeting of vulnerable and marginalised sections of the society and enabling expansion of the coverage of the programmes.”
The SECC is a paperless census, wherein the enumeration of data was done using over 6.4 lakh electronic hand-held devices. Household data was taken from the National Population Register along with the TIN.
The other members of the expert group are Amarjeet Sinha, Secretary, Rural Development Ministry; Mahendra Dev, Director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai; Rinku Murgai, Economist, World Bank; Himanshu, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Manoranjan Kumar from the RD Ministry.
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