Min to review criteria to select beneficiaries for welfare initiatives

New Delhi: The rural development ministry will reconsider the criteria for selecting beneficiaries for the government’s welfare initiatives as the Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the criticality of certain 'essentials', rural development secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha has told ET. Indicators like access to quality healthcare, adequate nutrition, education and awareness, water and sanitation facilities, and need for living spaces could be considered for inclusion and exclusion as the ministry prepares to update the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC), which is used to define eligibility of a household for various benefits offered under government schemes.

“SECC data is required to be updated so as to further minimise and eliminate exclusion and inclusion errors and also to make data dynamic,” Sinha said. “There is a growing recognition for the need for a multidimensional approach to move towards the vision of a poverty free India,” he said, adding that the multidimensional poverty index and other related information may be used in determining inclusion-exclusion criteria post SECC updation.