Expedite caste census: Officials told

Rural Development Minister Birender Singh today set a deadline of August 15 for completing the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) and directed officials that it must be expeditiously concluded by taking all necessary steps.
The direction came at a meeting held under his chairmanship to review the entire exercise of SECC initiated by the Ministry of Rural Development.
The Minister said it should be completed before August 15 so that the data can be used for planning in programmes of the government in providing benefits of development programmes to Gram Panchayats and rural and urban poor households.
SECC would enable the government to introduce much needed 'focussed and targeted intervention' in poverty reduction and rural development programmes as it is based on information furnished by households, the government said in a release.

The SECC enables the government in ranking households based on authentic information on the socio economic conditions of households. The data and information on households have been obtained through interactive and comprehensive door to door enumeration of households.
The entire exercise of census is paperless and has been conducted on handheld electronic devices (Tablet PCs).
Government claims that this has drastically reduced data entry errors and enumerator discretion. This is the first time that such a comprehensive exercise is being carried out for both rural and urban India.