What the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 tells us

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday released the first Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) in eight decades, saying the document would be essential for policy makers - both at the Centre and at the state-level.

"The enormity of schemes and reaches that all governments have, this document will form a basis of helping us target groups for support in terms of policy planning," he told reporters. He said the document will reflect the reality of India and be a very important input for all policymakers both for the central and state governments.

This is the first Census released after 1932 and contains various details with regard to specific regions, communities, caste and economic groups and measures the progress of the households in India.

"It is after 7-8 decades that we have this document after 1932 of the caste census. It is also a document which contains various details ... who are the ones who have qualitatively moved up in terms of life, which are the ones both in terms of geographical regions, social groupings which in future planning needs to be targeted," Jaitley said.

Here's what the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, carried out in all the 640 districts of the country, tells us on:

• Total 24.39 crore households (rural plus urban)
• 1.11 per cent of total households are public sector-employed; 3.57 per cent earn from private sector employment
• The country has 44.84 lakh domestic helps, 4.08 lakh rag pickers and 6.68 lakh beggars
• Of the total rural population, landless ownership is 56 per cent with 70 per cent of Scheduled Castes and 50 per cent of Scheduled Tribes being landless owners
• Of the 17.91 crore rural households:

- In 75 per cent of the households, monthly income of the highest-earning member is less than Rs 5,000
- Only 8.29 per cent of households have a member earning over Rs 10,000 per month
- 39.39 per cent (or 7.05 crore) have income of less than Rs 10,000 per month, or do not own either an automobile, fishing boat or kisan credit card [called Excluded Households]
- 60 per cent (or 10.69 crore) families qualify for "deprivation"
- 30.10 per cent (or 5.39 crore) depend on crop cultivation for sustenance
- 51.14 per cent (or 9.16 crore) earn income through manual casual labour
- 94 per cent own a house
- 54 per cent have 1-2 room dwellings
- Over 11 per cent have refrigerators
- 25 per cent households still do not own a phone
- 25 per cent households have no access to irrigation
- 20.69 per cent have either an automobile or a fishing boat
- 5 per cent earn salary from the government

• 4.6 per cent of all rural households
• 10 per cent households with salaried income
• 3.49 per cent of Scheduled Caste households
• 3.34 per cent of Scheduled Tribe rural households