BPL: More SC/ST families likely to get benefits

While the Union Cabinet has already approved the methodology for socio-economic survey to identify below poverty line families,Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday hinted that he was contemplating modifying the methodology to ensure that SC and ST households have higher probability compared to other sections to make it to the BPL list.

An indication to this effect was given by Ramesh at a workshop on socio-economic and caste census here. “The survey will generate rank list of households based on the principle of ‘automatic exclusion’ of families on identified 13 parameters,‘automatic inclusion’ of households on the basis of five parameters,and deprivation ranking of the remaining households on the basis of seven parameters. While the exclusion and inclusion criteria are non-negotiable,we can change the relative weightage of deprivation criteria,” he said.