1

Below Poverty Line (BPL) Census is conducted every five years to identify poor households in the rural areas.

Necessary to provide assistance under various programmes of MORD, other ministries and State Governments

To conduct BPL Census in rural and urban areas together with Caste Census.

The methodology proposed to conduct the BPL Census in rural areas and procedural issues have been submitted to the Union Cabinet for approval.

BPL Census likely to commence in June 2011

BPL Census – Policy DecisionBPL Census – Policy Decision

MoRD appointed Expert Group in August 2008 to suggest methodology for identification of poor

Dr. N.C. Saxena, Chairperson of Expert Group submitted report in August 2009

BPL CENSUS : TOWARDS A NEW METHODOLOGYBPL CENSUS : TOWARDS A NEW METHODOLOGY

4

Objective: To Test Validity of Indicators of Poverty and Deprivation

NEED FOR BPL PILOTNEED FOR BPL PILOTBPL Census 2002 had serious limitations and consequently

BPL list drawn had many flawsThere had been reported errors of exclusions and inclusions

and APL persons put into BPL category and vice-versaThus, need to devise a methodology that would avoid earlier

shortcomings as far as possibleNeed to pre-test methodology and implementation

mechanism

BPL PILOT SURVEYBPL PILOT SURVEY

First Stage: Socio-Economic Survey (SES) using structured questionnaire

Second Stage: Participatory Socio-Economic Survey (PSES) using PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) technique

Pilot conducted in 254 selected villages

Pilot Results discussed with State Governments

The BPL PilotThe BPL Pilot

Automatic exclusion indicators are likely to exclude 28% of the households

3 or more deprivation indicators (SC/ST treated as one deprivation) is likely to include 18% of the households

2 or more deprivation indicators (SC/ST treated as one deprivation) is likely to include 38% of the households

Results of BPL PilotResults of BPL Pilot

Rural Households classified in three steps

First, a set of Households are EXCLUDED

Second, a set of households are compulsorily INCLUDED

Third, remaining households are RANKED as per the number of deprivation indicators

Methodology Proposed for BPL Census 2011Methodology Proposed for BPL Census 2011

Motorized Two/Three/Four Wheelers/Fishing boats (which require registration)

Mechanized Three/ Four wheeler agricultural equipment such as tractors, harvesters etc.

Kisan Credit Card with the credit limit of Rs.50,000 and above

Households with any member as Government Employee: gazetted/ non-gazetted/ central/ state government/ PSU Government-aided autonomous bodies and local bodies.

Proposed Automatic Exclusion CriterProposed Automatic Exclusion Criteria ia

Households with non-agricultural enterprise registered with the Government

Any member in the family earning more than Rs. 10,000 per month

Paying income tax or professional tax Households with three or more rooms with all rooms

having pucca walls and pucca roof Owning Refrigerator Owning landline phones

Proposed Automatic Exclusion CriteriaProposed Automatic Exclusion Criteria

Households owning 2.5 acres or more irrigated land with at least one irrigation equipment such as diesel/ electric operated bore well/ tubewell;

5 acres or more land irrigated for two or more crop seasons;

Households owning 7.5 acres or more land with at least one irrigation equipment such as diesel/ electric operated borewell / tubewell

Proposed Automatic Exclusion CriteriaProposed Automatic Exclusion Criteria

Households without shelter;Destitutes/living on alms;Manual scavengers;Primitive Tribal Groups;Legally released bonded labourers;

Proposed Automatic Inclusion CriteriaProposed Automatic Inclusion Criteria

Households with only one room with kucha walls and kucha roof;

Households with no adult member between age 16 to 59;

Female headed households with no adult male member between age 16 to 59;

Households with any disabled member and no able bodied adult member;

SC/ST households; Households with no literate adult above 25 years; Landless households deriving the major part of their

income from manual casual labour.

Ranking of Remaining Households using Ranking of Remaining Households using Deprivation IndicatorsDeprivation Indicators

Households eligible under compulsory inclusion will have the highest priority

Proposed Inclusion PriorityProposed Inclusion Priority

Percentage of HHs with Deprivation Scores

14

Deprivation Scores

No. Deprivations Households

7 Deprivations 0.00

6 Deprivations 0.20

5 Deprivations 1.00

4 Deprivations 4.40

3 Deprivations 12.30

2 Deprivations 19.90

1 Deprivations 20.30

0 Deprivations 13.30

Priority to SC/ST in BPL List

• Findings of BPL Pilot• 66% of SC/ST families are Poor (lower 50%

of the population)• 34% of SC/ST families are Non-Poor (upper

50% of the population)

15

SC/ST Coverage : BPL Pilot

• As per Proposed Methodology:• 16% of SC/ST Households fall under

Exclusion Criteria• 80% of the remaining 84% households

(67.2% of total SC/ST households) satisfy 2 or more Deprivation Criteria in addition to the Deprivation admissible to them due to being SC/ST

• 18% of Total Households have 3 or more Deprivations

16

Respondent based canvassing method for the Census.

Enumerator will visit every household and canvass the questionnaire.

Responses of the persons noted without any verification.

No proof of document asked from the respondents.

Proposed Methodology for BPL Census 2011Proposed Methodology for BPL Census 2011

18

Enumerator ask the questions; data entry operator provided by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) enter the responses into a Tablet PC.

Acknowledgement slips issued to each household after the enumeration.

Enumerators notes in case he finds the information prima facie incorrect

Supervisor checks the discrepancies The information would be verified and approved by

Gram Sabha

Proposed Methodology for BPL Census 2011Proposed Methodology for BPL Census 2011

Secretary, of the Rural/Urban Development Ministries of the State Government would be in charge in each State.

The Collectors/DMs would be in charge in their respective jurisdictions.

Services of Tehsildars/BDO at the sub-district level and the revenue/development machinery below them would be requisitioned.

Enumerators would be appointed at the local level. Enumerators would be selected by the State

Governments from Patwaries, Panchayat Secretaries, Asha workers, municipal workers and postal workers etc.

19

Administrative set-upAdministrative set-up

Poverty Cap

• The Planning Commission has provided State-wise estimates of poverty which is proposed to be used as cap.

• However, the Planning Commission will not be providing caps at the sub-state level.

20

Deprivation indicators vary from 0 to 7. Highest deprivation score would be included first

followed by the next deprivation score and so on till the cumulative percentage of these households do not exceed the poverty cut-off fixed by the Planning Commission.

The deprivation cut-offs would be assigned after the census has been completed based on actual data and these would vary from state to state.

Proposed Inclusion Priority :Household Ranking Proposed Inclusion Priority :Household Ranking under Deprivation Indicatorsunder Deprivation Indicators

The order of priority for inclusion of households in the BPL list would be from largest number of deprivations to smallest number of deprivations.

For the purpose of coverage under welfare schemes of the Government, households eligible for compulsory inclusion will have highest priority, followed by households with higher deprivation scores.

Proposed Inclusion PriorityProposed Inclusion Priority

For such welfare programme where universal coverage is not permissible, the system would be capable of generating a ranking of priority household till poverty caps prescribed by the Planning Commission are attained.

The deprivation cut-off will be chosen in such a manner that the total percentage of households will be less than or equal to the cut-off poverty ratio prescribed by the Planning Commission.

Proposed Inclusion PriorityProposed Inclusion Priority

The difference in the number of households prescribed by Planning Commission and arrived at by deprivation cut-off method, if any, will be identified by permitting households with one less deprivation than deprivation cut-off from Panchayats which have highest percentage of SC/ST population in the State arranged seriatim in decreasing order of percentage of SC/ST population. This method can be used to arrive at any cut-off as required.

Proposed Inclusion PriorityProposed Inclusion Priority

Suppose the poverty cap set by the Planning Commission is 55%. Using exclusion indicators, 15% of the households are excluded. For the remaining 85% households deprivation scores would be assigned. Suppose all the households with 2 or more deprivations together constitute 50% of the population. Households with 1 deprivation are 20% of the households and 15% of the households with zero deprivation. The procedure would involve including all households with 2 deprivations or more.

Out of these 20% households, 5% (55% poverty cut off minus 50% with 2 or more deprivation) will be selected by permitting households with one less deprivation than deprivation cut-off from Panchayats which have highest percentage of SC/ST population in the State arranged seriatim in decreasing order of percentage of SC/ST population.

25

ExampleExample

Poverty cap set by the Planning Commission is 55%. In this state, 43.5% of the households have 2 or more deprivations and 19% households have one deprivation. Out of these 19% of the households, who have one deprivation, 11.5% will be selected for categorisation as BPL families from the Panchayats with highest proportion of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe population. Thus, total number of households categorised as BPL (which is 55%) would therefore, consist of 43.5% of the households having 2 or more deprivations and 11.5% households from the Panchayats with highest proportion of Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe population.

26

ExampleExample

Management Information System (MIS) will be developed to facilitate use of database of BPL Census by Central Ministries/State Governments.

National Informatics Centre (NIC), which has been working with the MoRD for several years and is engaged in developing Management of Information System (MIS) for almost all its programmes, will develop an MIS for the management of the database of BPL Census 2011 and to facilitate its subsequent use by the programme divisions, other Ministries and State Governments for their own requirements.

Management Information System (MIS)Management Information System (MIS)

Conduct of the Census

– BPL Census would be conducted along with Caste Census of RGI and urban BPL Census of the M/O Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation .

– Information related to Caste will be separated after the data collection is over and handed over to RGI for further processing.

– Information excluding the Caste will be draft published.

28

– The BPL census in rural areas would be carried out by the respective State Governments.

– The Ministry of Rural Development will provide financial and technical support in conducting the same.

– The entire process will be completed by December 2011.

29

Conduct of the Census

Thank YouThank You