Reports on SECC errors remain elusive
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 31 2019: Even though it has been more than three months since the State Government sought reports from all districts on the number of households left out of the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, most districts are yet to submit reports.

It was earlier reported that many households had been denied benefits of several welfare and poverty alleviation schemes as they were not listed in the SECC 2011 even though they were eligible for enlistment in the census data.

The State Government took note of the matter and the Secretariat (RD&PR Department) even convened a meeting of DCs and SDOs on December 18 last year but the meeting was postponed suddenly without giving any reason.

Even though the meeting was put off, Secretariat (RD&PR Department) notified all DCs to submit detail reports on the errors on SECC 2011 and number of eligible households left out of the census data to the State Government within two months.

In accordance with an order issued by the State Government, district level committees were formed with DCs as chairmen, and ADCs and SDOs as members in order to find out errors in SECC 2011 and who were responsible for the errors.

As no DCs submitted the reports sought by the Government even after two months, RD&PR Joint Secretary Yumnam Robita sent a reminder to all the DCs on March 30.It intimated all the DCs to submit the reports by April 15 without fail.

Based on the reports to be furnished by the DCs, the State Government would send a comprehensive report to the Central Government so that necessary corrective measures can be initiated, sources informed.

Earlier the Chief Minister expressed strong displeasure on the ground that benefits of several welfare schemes which should be enjoyed by economically weak families are being enjoyed by well off families due to errors in the SECC 2011 data.

According to SECC 2011 data, there are 5,78,939 households in the State out of which 77.41 per cent (4,48,163 households) reside in rural areas while 22.59 per cent (1,30,776) live in urban areas.

For Manipur, collection of data for SECC 2011 started around mid 2011 and Rural Development Department is the nodal department of the census exercise.

But actual collection of data is done by supervisors appointed by DCs and SDOs.

The supervisors were drawn from different departments and they were assisted by Economics and Statistics Department.

The task of compiling data was handled by MANITRON.

There are two possible reasons for the errors in the SECC 2011 data.

Either house owners did not furnish correct data or the supervisors compiled the data from secondary sources without undertaking house to house survey, said the sources.

As the next SECC is due in 2021 which is just over two years away, reviewing SECC 2011 would not change things much but identifying the errors would go a long away in avoiding such errors in the next census exercise, said the sources.

Notably, selection of beneficiaries of most welfare schemes related to rural development is done based on SECC 2011 .

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