Counting India’s poor begins Wednesday
June 28th, 2011 - 10:15 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, June 28 (IANS) A nationwide census to identify Indians living below the poverty line (BPL) and help determine those eligible for social welfare schemes meant for the poor begins with Tripura Wednesday.
The mammoth exercise, to be concluded by the year end in both urban and rural areas, will also take a headcount for various caste and religious groups in the country.
Those who own a vehicle, a concrete house, a fridge or a fixed phone, as also when any family member is a government employee or earns above Rs.10,000 per month will be excluded from the BPL population.
The results of the census will be utilised in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17).
The government in May gave the go-ahead for the census, the findings of which will also help in extending the Food Security Act that promises subsidised grain to the poor.
For the first time, the survey, which takes place every five years in rural areas, will include urban households as well. Chandigarh would be the first city where the socio-economic caste census will begin July 18.
The exercise will be carried out jointly by the ministries of rural development, and housing and urban poverty alleviation, and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
Instead of pen and paper, the census enumerators will carry indigenously developed tablet computers.
The Bharat Electronic Ltd (BEL) is supplying these low-cost computers.
- New census to estimate India's poor with caste, religion (Roundup) - May 19, 2011
- India to carry out caste, creed, poverty census together (Second Lead) - May 19, 2011
- Count of India's poor begins Wednesday from Tripura (Lead) - Jun 28, 2011
- Fine-tuning of poor headcount required: Minister - May 21, 2011
- Cabinet nod to simultaneous caste, religion, poverty census (Lead) - May 19, 2011
- Independent India's first caste census kicks off (Lead) - Jun 29, 2011
- Independent India's first caste census kicks-off - Jun 29, 2011
- Bihar to launch caste census from April 20 - Apr 19, 2012
- Poverty, caste census will be almost paperless - May 19, 2011
- Panchayat members to accompany caste census enumerators - Aug 08, 2011
- India begins 1.2 billion population headcount (Roundup) - Feb 09, 2011
- Plan panel's poverty line not to impact socio-economic census - Sep 27, 2011
- Panchayat members to accompany caste enumerators (Lead) - Aug 09, 2011
- Key cabinet decisions of 2011 (2011 in Retrospect) - Dec 27, 2011
- Census-2011 to cover illegal immigrants too - Feb 02, 2011
Tags: bpl, caste, census enumerators, electronic ltd, food security act, government employee, headcount, living below the poverty line, low cost computers, mammoth exercise, pen and paper, poverty alleviation, registrar general, religious groups, rural development, social welfare schemes, tablet computers, tripura, urban households, urban poverty