The highest earning member in about 75 percent of all rural households in the country earned less than Rs 5,000 per month, according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 released on Friday, reports PTI.
As per the Census data, there were 13.34 crore or 74.49 per cent households where “monthly income of highest earning household member” was below Rs 5,000 a month.
There were only 1.48 crore or 8.29 per cent of rural households where the monthly income of such member was Rs 10,000 or more.
A census bases on India’s socio economic condition also revealed that almost 50 percent of Indian households fall under the category of ‘considered deprived’ and a staggering 30 percent rural households don’t own land and depend on manual labour for their survival.
As many as 2.37 crore (one in eight) families in villages live in houses of one room with ‘kaccha’ walls and roof.
This census was carried out in 640 districts under the aegis of the Rural Development Ministry. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh jointly released this report on Friday.
The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 is also the first paperless census conducted on hand-held electronic devices by the government, said 23.52 per cent rural families have no literate adult above 25 years, suggesting a poor state of education among rural masses.
Commenting after releasing the report, Jaitley said, “It’s after seven-eight decades that we have this document after 1932 of the caste census… It’s going to be very important document for all policy makers both at central and state governments…this document will help us target groups for support in terms of policy planning.”
On the other hand, Singh said the data addressed “the multi-dimensionality of poverty and provides a unique opportunity for a convergent, evidence based planning with a Gram Panchayat as unit.”