Govt may update socio-economic census periodically to track poverty decline

The Centre is expected to start pilot projects on periodic updation of the socio-economic caste census (SECC) later this month in select districts. The process has become important after major social welfare programmes, including flagship schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen, are being linked through the SECC.

The Centre is also looking at developing a mobile application for automatic updation, which will be tested during the trial runs. After the trials, based on the final results, the models could be adopted for the entire country. For this, a formal cabinet note will be moved. 

The updation will ensure that new people are added to the list, while those who have moved up the deprivation ladder or shifted from an area are automatically deleted. The SECC rural was carried out in 640 districts across the country. The database is expected to act as a social registry that would help monitor whether the benefits helped the recipients come out of poverty by just assessing their deprivation status.