<div>The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government on Friday (03 July) released the results of a census that gives the first large-scale picture of India’s caste and socio-economic makeup since 1932.</div><div> </div><div>Around 73 per cent of households in India are rural, according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data released jointly by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh.</div><div> </div><div><strong>BW | Businessworld deciphers the Socio Economic and Caste Census numbers. Here are the highlights</strong></div><div> </div><div>According to the data, <strong>74.5 </strong>per cent of rural households have an income of the highest earning member below Rs 5000 per month. Only <strong>8.3</strong> per cent of rural households have an income of the highest earning member above Rs. 10,000 per month.</div><div> </div><div>The census provided for automatic exclusion on the basis of 14 parameters, and inclusion on the basis of five parameters. Of the rural households, <strong>7.05</strong> crore or 39.39 per cent were excluded, while<strong> 16.50</strong> lakh or 0.92 per cent were included.</div><div> </div><div>The deprivation data reveal that <strong>5.37 </strong>crore (29.97 per cent) households in rural areas are "landless deriving a major part of their income from manual labour". As many as <strong>2.37</strong> crore (13.25 per cent) families in villages live in houses of one room with 'kaccha' walls and roof.</div><div> </div><div>Almost 21.53 per cent, or <strong>3.86</strong> crore, families living in villages belong to SC/ST categories.</div><div> </div><div>The census said just <strong>4.6</strong> per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax.</div><div> </div><div>As for sources of income,<strong> 9.16</strong> crore households (51.14 per cent) depend on manual casual labour followed by cultivation <strong>30.10</strong> per cent.</div><div> </div><div>It further said <strong>2.5</strong> crore (14.01 per cent) rural families are dependent on income from other sources which include government service, private sector and PSUs.</div><div> </div><div>According to the Census, the average mobile penetration in the country stood at <strong>68.35 </strong>per cent (179 million rural households).</div><div> </div><div>As far as possession of white goods are concerned, only <strong>11.04</strong> per cent rural households owns refrigerator. Goa with <strong>69.37</strong> per cent is on the top among the list followed by Punjab with <strong>66.43</strong> per cent households owning it. Bihar has lowest number of refrigerators. </div><div> </div><div>Only <strong>2.61</strong> per cent households own a fridge. Chhattisgarh follows Bihar in ascending order with <strong>3.30</strong> per cent of the households own this.</div><div> </div><div><strong>50</strong> million households don’t own a landline or a mobile phone. </div><div> </div><div><strong>1,052,210</strong> divorced people living in rural areas. That’s just 0.12% of the population. Divorce is very rare in India.</div><div> </div><div>The country has <strong>44.84 lakh </strong>domestic helps, <strong>4.08 </strong>lakh rag pickers and <strong>6.68</strong> lakh beggars</div><div> </div><div>Of the total rural population, landless ownership is <strong>56</strong> per cent with 70 per cent of Scheduled Castes and <strong>50</strong> per cent of Scheduled Tribes being landless owners. <br><br><div><strong>20.69</strong> per cent rural households had either an automobile or a fishing boat.</div><div> </div><div><strong>8. 94</strong> per cent of the rural households owned a house with 54% cent having 1-2 room dwellings.</div></div>
