File photo of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday released the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) and said that it would be an important input for policy makers.
These are the key points of the Census:
- In 75 per cent of 17.9 crore households in rural India, the monthly income of the highest-earning member is less than Rs.5,000
- Nearly 40 per cent are landless and work as manual casual labourers
- 25 per cent of the rural households still do not own a phone
- 25 per cent rural households have no access to irrigation
- Only 8.29 per cent of rural households have a member earning over Rs.10,000 per month
- 10.69 crore rural families, or 60 per cent, qualify for "deprivation"
- Of these over 100 million deprived households, 21.5 per cent belong to scheduled castes or tribes.
- This census takes caste into account for the first time in any such exercise since 1931.