As discussed previously, the methodology of the BPL Census 2006 was criticised which led to constitution of an expert group in August 2008. According to the expert group, the focus of the Census methodology should be clearly on ‘developing methods and criteria which have best chance of being accurately executed by the government staff’, and hence ‘the criteria for identifying the BPL households should be extremely simple, clear, pertinent, least time consuming for completion, and easily understood, and not subject to multiple interpretations’.

The methodology adopted for BPL Census 2011 combines automatic inclusion of ‘poor’ households, automatic exclusion of ‘non-poor’ households and a scoring mechanism for the remaining households. The report of the expert group gives detailed guidelines about the survey process, the role of the Gram Sabha, block and district officials.

Automatic Exclusion

The households which fulfill any of the following conditions will not be surveyed for BPL status:

1)     Families which own double the land of the district average of agricultural land per agricultural household if partially or wholly irrigated (3 times if completely un-irrigated);

2)     Families owning 3 or 4 wheeled motorized vehicles;

3)     Families who own at least one mechanized farm equipment such as tractor, power tiller,  thresher, harvester etc;

4)     Families where at least one person draws a salary of Rs. 10,000 or more per month on a regular basis with pension or equivalent benefits;

5)     Families which pay income tax;

The State governments are given freedom to add more indicators if they wish.

Automatic Inclusion

The expert group took cognizance of the fact that most of the poor are often excluded from the BPL lists. As mentioned in the report of the expert group, ‘(excluding poor people) from BPL lists frequently reflect the powerlessness of the most vulnerable and are a direct function of their weak political bargaining power as a collective entity in a democracy. …To address this, the expert group felt it was imperative that the foremost task remained that of ensuring their automatic inclusion as clearly defined social and economic categories.’

Hence, destitute households, primitive tribal groups, ‘maha dalits’, single women and their dependents, households where disabled persons are bread earners, households headed by minors, homeless households and households where any member is a bonded labourer would automatically included in the list of the BPL households.

Scoring Mechanism

Once a set of households are automatically included or excluded, the remaining households would be ranked on the basis of following indicators:

Those achieving highest points would be included first, followed by the next high score and so on till one reaches the quota given to that Panchayat.

The expert group suggested that the survey should be valid for a period of 10 years. But a summary revision should be done after every 2 years to account for deaths, new households moving in and out of poverty, migration etc.

Thus, the BPL Census 2011 seems to have addressed number of concerns as far as the methodology and survey process is concerned.

As mentioned earlier, the survey has already begun on June 29, and would be completed by December 2011 in a phased manner. An interesting development is that the enumerator will ask the questions while the data entry operator will enter the responses into a hand held device which should reduce the time for collecting and processing the data. An acknowledgment slip will also be provided once the survey is done.

The methodological changes, inclusion of caste in the Census, implication of BPL numbers for the proposed food security bill and overall debate surrounding cash vs. kind transfers and targeted vs. universalised benefits of the public schemes- all this will be greatly influenced by what this Census throws up. No doubt, the results are eagerly awaited.