<p><em>Deprivation affects more than 48.5% of rural households, according to the Socio-Economic & Caste Census, reports <strong>Simar Singh</strong></em><br><br>The recently released 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census indicates that in Rural India a mere 39.39 per cent of households are not considered deprived. These figures, though not unexpected, mean that the government has a huge section of people to target for their poverty alleviation schemes and other policy measures.<br><br>Upon releasing the data, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it would help in better targeting of government policies, calling it a reflection of the Indian reality and a important input for all policymakers.<br><br>The exercise has ranked households based on seven requisite indicators of deprivation which include households with one room, kucha walls and kucha roof, those deriving a major chunk of their income from casual manual labour, and SC or ST households.<br><br>16.50 lakh (0.92 per cent) households were automatically included. These cover households without shelter, those who had to scavenge to survive and legally released bonded labour.<br><br>10.69 households were considered for deprivation out of which 2 crore reported no deprivation while the rest 8.69 crore fulfilled at least one of the seven parameters. This means that around 48.50 per cent of rural households suffer from one or multiple types of deprivation.<br><br>The data further breaks this figure up to show that SC households make up 13.28 per cent of the total deprived households and ST households make 10.97 per cent. These two are the major identifiable sections of the deprived households in the rural landscape and together make up around 29.43 per cent of its population.<br><br>Also, only 4.58 per cent of the rural population pays income tax, with a mere 3.49 per cent of SC households and the comparatively slightly better 3.34 per cent of ST households, paying income tax.<br><br>The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 also painted a grim picture of rural India, indicating that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood.<br><br>The SECC 2011, also the first paperless census conducted on hand-held electronic devices by the government, said 23.52 per cent rural families have no literate adult above 25 years, suggesting a poor state of education among rural masses.<br><br>The census, carried out in 640 districts under the aegis of the Rural Development Ministry, was released jointly by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh here.<br><br>According to the census, there are a total number of 24.39 crore households in the country, of which 17.91 crore live in villages. Of these, 10.69 crore households are considered as deprived.<br><br>The deprivation data reveal that 5.37 crore (29.97 per cent) households in rural areas are "landless deriving a major part of their income from manual labour". As many as 2.37 crore (13.25 per cent) families in villages live in houses of one room with 'kaccha' walls and roof.<br><br>It further said 21.53 per cent, or 3.86 crore, families living in villages belong to SC/ST categories.<br><br>Releasing the census, Jaitley said, "It's after seven-eight decades that we have this document after 1932 of the caste census... It's going to be very important document for all policy makers both at central and state governments...this document will help us target groups for support in terms of policy planning."<br><br>The data, Singh said, "addresses the multi-dimensionality of poverty and provides a unique opportunity for a convergent, evidence based planning with a Gram Panchayat as unit".<br><br>Singh added a caveat, saying though the name of the census suggests caste, it does not include castes.<br><br>"The name of the report indicates (caste), but caste is not reflected in our data ... still the name is Socio Economic and Caste Census," he said. .</p>
