Caste census report likely in three months

Launched after acrimonious debates in Parliament, the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) is “almost complete” and is expected to be made public in the next three months.

Enumerators have covered 24 lakh blocks across the country to gather data on the socio-economic status of the population and a caste-wise break-up. This information is expected to help the government ensure that its welfare programmes reach the needy.

“Field surveys related to the SECC are almost complete across all the states and Union territories,” Deepak Rastogi, Additional Registrar General of India, said in a letter to BJP member of Lok Sabha Hansraj Ahir who had sought details about the exercise.

The SECC was launched from a small village in West Tripura in June 2011, the first such exercise undertaken in post-independence India to map the socio-economic profile of various castes.

The census was ordered after political parties, particularly from the Hindi heartland, repeatedly paralysed the parliament proceedings demanding that the government should have accurate data of the suppressed classes for whom it had rolled out several welfare schemes.