SECC-2011 is a study of socio economic status of rural and urban households and allows ranking of households based on predefined parameters. SECC 2011 has three census components which were conducted by three separate authorities but under the overall coordination of Department of Rural Development in the Government of India. Census in Rural Area has been conducted by the Department of Rural Development (DoRD). Census in Urban areas is under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA).... Caste Census is under the administrative control of Ministry of Home Affairs: Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner of India.
Ministry of Rural Development commenced the Socio-Economic Caste Census-2011 on 29th June, 2011 through a comprehensive door to door enumeration across the country. The data of the exercise is now available for policy, research and for implementing various development programmes. It is therefore necessary that the data is understood with respect to the questionnaire (Annex-I). The following needs to be consciously taken on record while using SECC data.
(i) The SECC data is respondent based input along with the counter sign of enumerator.The data is the "revealed data" by the household to the enumerator. However, collected data also meets the approval of Gram Sabha and Panchayats.
(ii) The structure of the houses of household is described in SECC as Kuccha or Pucca depending on the respondent based information on predominant material used in walls and roof
(iii) Ownership status of the house is respondent based information.
(iv) Main source of income related to household has been clarified in rural areas as cultivation, manual casual labour, part time or full time domestic service, begging, non-agriculture own enterprise, begging/charity/alms and others. The various components of 'other' have however not been enumerated.
(v) Some nuances of data needs to be clarified. For instance, "Non-adult member" questionnaire has used the age group of 16-59 instead of 14-59. Similarly the question on income of the main earner does not ask logical question on any other earner. Thus, when the household reports less than Rs. 5000/ month as the income of the main earner the natural second question of any other earner would have defined poverty status of the house sharply in income term. However, the approach of SECC is torely on enumerating multidimensionality of poverty and rank households accordingly for receiving benefits of governments' positive interventions. Thus, even in the absence of the same, these households can be tracked on multi variable analysis on poverty by keeping in view the insecurity and uncertainty of wage jobs and insecure, unsafe and poor quality of households, etc.

(vi) SECC data is compilation of 24 lakhs enumeration blocks where each enumeration block has roughly 125 households. These are the same enumeration blocks that were formed during census. This allows SECC data to rank household and categorise them on the basis of socio economic status using automatic exclusion criteria, automatic inlusion criteria and deprivation criteria.

Census 2011 and Socio Economic Census 2011

(vii) The data of SECC does not and cannot super impose itself fully on the census data. While there is a high degree of compatibility in the two sets of data the findings could be different because the duration of census and that of SECC is different. Census 2011 on the other hand was conducted during the period 9th to 28th February 2011. Socio Economic Caste Census 2011 was largely carried out in 2011 and 2012 with a few states taking enumeration and verification in 2013 also.

(viii) It is relevant to note that the regular Population Census is carried out under Census Act, 1948. According to this Act, Government must keep individual's personal information confidential. Besides aim of regular Population Census is to provide overview, it is not concerned with any particular individual / household. In short personal data given in Population Census is confidential. On the contrary all the personal information given in the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) is open for use by Government departments to grant and/ or restrict benefits to households. This required the right of verification of socio economic profile prepared by enumerators, verifiers and supervisors of state government of households to be shared in transparent manner with households, Panchayats and Gram Sabha. This entailed mid track change in process of SECC 2011 which had to introduce in November 2012 a process of complaints/ objections to be entertained under a pre-defined process after publication of draft SECC list. Accordingly, all published Draft District Lists were put for public scrutiny before Panchayat and were displayed in Gram Sabha except names of caste/tribe/religion details. Complaints / Objections were to be thereafter examined by designated officers within mandated 45-82 days. However, this process resulted in to considerable time over run since more than 1.41 crore households out of 17.97 crore had raised objections which brought time over run of more than 485 days in certain cases. Since valid information on 100 % households is now available, a distinct credibility is added to the final data which is now open for examination and deriving actionable meanings.

The status of SECC as on 30.11.2016 is as under


Roles & Responsibilities

Ministry of Rural Development
i Policy approval from Cabinet
ii Software Development and Quality check of data
iii Questionnaire
iv Training Manual
v Publicity and setting up Toll free call center
viContinuation of Staff in the States
vii Convening National Meetings
viii Financial sanctions for entire Census
ix Procurement of HHDs
x Engaging CPSEs and NIC
xi Independent monitoring by research/ NGO agencies
Ministry of Housing Urban and Poverty Alleviation
i Policy approval from Cabinet
ii Questionnaire
iii Training Manual
iv Publicity
v Continuation of Staff in the States
vi Monitoring and supervision
vii Quality check of data
State Government
i Approvals of the State/UT Government
ii Appointment of field functionaries
iii Training
iv Local level Publicity
v Coordination and Supervision
vi Timely completion of field survey
vii Timely utilization of funds
viii Proper accounting of funds
Office of Registrar General of India
i NPR Data Base
ii Charge Registers
iii Abridged House list
iv Layout Maps
v Supervision during Training
vi Supervision during Field work
vii Inputs for developing Training Manual
viii Troubleshooting regarding Software

Process Prescribed for SECC 2011

Methodology
Respondent based canvasser method would be adopted for the survey
The Enumerator (a Government servant) would ask the questions, while a data entry operator to be provided by consortium of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) will enter the responses into a hand held device.
Acknowledgement slips will be provided to each household after the enumeration.

Hand Held Devices
The database created during the National Population Register (NPR) would be utilized. This would be loaded onto hand held devices
The Tablet PC and software would be provided by M/s Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)

Administrative set-up
The Principal Secretary of the State/UT Departments would be in charge of Rural Development in case of rural areas and Urban Development in case of urban areas would be responsible for conducting the survey in the State/ UT concerned
The Collectors/DMs would conduct the survey in their respective jurisdictions.
They would utilize the services of Tehsildars/ BDOs at the sub-district level and the revenue development machinery below them
The data would be canvassed by enumerators who would have to be appointed at the local level. As teachers cannot be utilized for this survey due to the restrictions laid down in the Right of Education Act, the enumerators will have to be appointed from among the revenue/development/health functionaries. Therefore, Patwaries, Panchyat secretaries, Asha workers, Anganwari workers, municipal workers and postal workers may have to be appointed for this purpose. The Collectors would appoint these enumerators.

Training A cascade approach for training will be adopted. National level Trainers will train State level trainers who would in turn train the District level Trainers. The District level trainers would ultimately train the enumerators and supervisors.

Field activities
The Collectors/Corporation Commissioners will be in charge of field activities. Supervision of the field level activities would be done by the district level/municipal officials. The Directorates of Census Operations in each State/UT would also deploy available staff to the districts for supervision and coordination

Coordination at the Central Government level
A Committee consisting of Secretaries of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) and the Registrar General, India would be constituted at the Central Government level to coordinate the survey.

Publicity
Publicity for the survey will be done by the concerned Ministries through Directorate of Audio-Visual Publicity (DAVP), Doordarshan and AIR.

Administrative prerequisites
Conferences of Chief Secretaries/ RD Secretaries/ UD Secretaries will be convened to apprise the State authorities about the significance as well as process of the survey. Besides, a Conferences of Collectors/DMs will also be convened

Financial sanctions
The proposals for financial sanctions will be moved by the Ministry of Rural Development for both urban and rural areas. The expenditure will then be apportioned between the MoRD and MoHUPA.

Claims & Objection Process Prescribed
Each SECC Draft List was to be placed before Gram Sabha for inviting Claims & Objections
Following forms were used to entertain the claims and objections:
i Form A - Objection against inclusion
ii Form B - Correction of data
iii Form C - Inclusion of data in SECC
iv Form D - Notice to person for whom objection/claim made
v Form E - Observation/resolution at Gram Sabha

Following are the steps for handling claims and objections:
i Receipt of claims and objection by receiving officer
ii Disposal of claims & objections by designated officer in 7 days
iii Appeal against the Designated officer decision
iv Publication of final list