Below Poverty Line (BPL) Census to be conducted along with Caste Census
during June-December 2011
RD Minister says the move will help enumeration of the poor and ensure that the benefits of development reach out to them
Union Minister of Rural Development Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh has said that the Centre’s decision to hold Below Poverty Line (BPL) Census in rural and urban areas would ensure the enumeration of those who are poor and can avail the benefits of the pro- people and pro- poor welfare programs of the Government. Shri Deshmukh was talking to the media persons at the sidelines of a function in New Delhi today.
The BPL Census and Caste Census would be held in the second half of this year during June to December 2011. Earlier in the day, decks were cleared by the Union Cabinet as it gave its nod to conduct the Below Poverty Line (BPL) Census in rural and urban areas. It has been decided that the Census would be conducted jointly by the Ministry of Rural Development, Registrar General of India (RGI) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA).
The six month long exercise for the BPL population would be undertaken with the help of state Government personnel who would collect the door to door information in the first phase which would subsequently be collated by the Ministry Of Rural Development, the Office of RGI and HUPA. Subsequently Ministry Of Social Justice and Ministry Of Tribal Affairs would use the classify the data into categories for the beneficiaries of the targeted welfare programs of the Government.
It will be a paper-less exercise which would be carried out with the help of low-cost and-held devices to be manufactured by state-run Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). All relevant households which have been enumerated would be revisited, with the enumerators, mostly from the state Governments, going door to door. The identification of urban poor is being carried out for the first time as earlier only the rural population was enumerated to help them avail targeted BPL benefits.
Criteria for identification of the BPL would be on the basis of automatic inclusion, exclusion and a ranking on the basis of seven point deprivation index. The rural population would be divided into three categories, including exclusion of those above poverty line and automatic inclusion of those in the BPL category. The third category would enable identification of the targeted population by using seven parameters called the deprivation index and ranked accordingly. These include among others the households with only one room, those without any adult member between 16-59 years of age and no literate adult above 25 years. The responses would be fed into a hand-held PC tab and the data uploaded on central server at the tehsil level. The device would be supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited. The time-frame of conducting this exercise has been worked out.
The first BPL Census was conducted in 1992 for the eighth five year plan. Subsequently, BPL census was conducted in 1997, for the Ninth five year plan and in 2002 for the Tenth five year plan period. Ministry of Rural Development constituted an Expert Group in 2008 to advise the Ministry on the methodology for conducting the BPL Census for the Eleventh five year plan. The Expert Group submitted its report under the Chairmanship of Dr. N.C Saxena on 21st August 2009. The Expert Group recommended detailed methodology for conducting the Census and appropriate appeal mechanisms. The Report of the Expert Group was posted on the Ministry’s website www.rural.nic.in soliciting comments and suggestions. It was circulated among the State Governments/UT administrations and the concerned Central Ministries for their comments. The Ministry also consulted the issue of finalization of methodology with experts in the related field. The experts suggested pre-testing the methodology with alternative methodology options. Accordingly, MORD has conducted a BPL Pilot survey to field test alternative methodologies. The BPL Pilot has been conducted in two stages.
(a) Stage I: Household Survey has been conducted through conventional Questionnaire Method in 254 villages (drawn from the NSSO sample lists of villages for 66th round) across the rural areas of the country.
(b) Stage II: Participatory Socio-Economic Study (PSES) has been conducted based on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique. PSES has been conducted in the same 254 villages where household survey has been conducted. The results of the PRA would be used for corroborating the findings of the survey.
(c) Based on the findings of the analysis after consultations, the methodology for the BPL census along with the Questionnaire has been worked out.
The BPL Census would pave the way to identify the households living below the poverty line in rural and urban areas of the country. The entire process will be completed by December 2011 and the results of the BPL Census would be utilized in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17). The enumeration of castes will also be done simultaneously along with the BPL census. The process will go a long way towards meeting the inclusive growth agenda of the Government.
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