Agartala/New Delhi: A
nationwide census begins with Tripura Wednesday to identify
Indians living below the poverty line (BPL) and help determine
those eligible for social welfare schemes meant for the poor.
However, the state's Left Front government Tuesday announced that
it would not accept any pre-determined figures of poor and all
states should be consulted on the methodology of the survey.
"Our government would not accept the preset figures of poor
people. Central government should take the opinion of all the
state governments across the country about the methodology of the
BPL survey," Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said after inaugurating a
day-long workshop here on the survey.
"I have written letters to all chief ministers and the Planning
Commission drawing their attention about the pre-fixed data of
poor people of all the states before the survey," he said.
Being conducted after 14 years, the mammoth exercise will also
take a head count for various caste and religious groups in the
country.
Carried out jointly by the ministries of rural development, and
housing and urban poverty alleviation, and the Registrar General
and Census Commissioner of India, the survey will roll out from
Hezamara rural development block in western Tripura.
The government in May gave the go-ahead to the census, the
findings of which will also help in extending the Food Security
Act that promises subsidised grain to the poor.
The survey, which takes place every five years in rural areas,
will for the first time include urban households as well.
Chandigarh would be the first city where the socio-economic caste
census will begin July 18.
"The electronically conducted paperless survey would be completed
in the entire country by March next year," union Rural Development
Secretary B.K.Sinha said.
The latest data of the Planning Commission indicates that poverty
(in India) has declined to 32 percent in 2009-10 from 37.2 percent
five years ago.
The plan panel had in December 2005 appointed a four-member
committee to suggest alternate concepts of poverty and recommend
changes in the existing procedures of official estimation of
poverty.
The committee was headed by noted economist Suresh D. Tendulkar
(who passed away last week), then member of the prime minister's
economic advisory council (EAC) and later chairman of the National
Statistical Commission.
The committee had submitted its report in November 2009.
"The survey would be conducted under the Planning Commission
formula, mostly the Tendulkar method," Sinha said.
Citing previous improper BPL surveys, Sinha said that during a
visit to a village in Gaya district of Bihar in 2009, he found
that those villagers who had been surviving by eating rats had not
been included in the BPL pilot survey in 2002, but a family in a
nearby village with three-storeyed building and other assets had
been included in the list.
According to the officials, the people living without shelter, the
destitutes, beggars, manual scavengers, primitive tribal groups,
and legally released bonded labourers would get priority to be
included in the BPL lists.
Those families that own a vehicle or two-wheelers, a concrete
house or a house with three or more rooms or a fixed phone, a
fishing boat or agricultural equipment, pay professional or income
tax to the government, have a member in government service, earn
above Rs.10,000 per month or have Kisan Credit Cards with
Rs.50,000 and above would not be included in the BPL list.
"Along with the BPL survey, the caste census would be conducted
simultaneously across the country and that would also be started
from Wednesday," Registrar General and Census Commissioner of
India C. Chandramauli said in the workshop.
"The central government has directed to complete the caste census,
the first-ever in independent India, by December this year," he
said adding that after the completion of caste census, the rural
development ministry would provide the data to the census
authority for processing.
Instead of pen and paper, the census enumerators will carry
indigenously developed tablet computers to record the data. The
Bharat Electronic Ltd (BEL) is supplying these low-cost computers.
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