SECC 2011
Precedent and Data Quality Concerns
The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 was a separate exercise (distinct from the decennial Population Census) conducted to identify households for welfare targeting, which collected caste data using an open-ended, non-coded format; the caste component data was never officially released due to widely acknowledged classification errors.
- SECC 2011 recorded castes based on self-declaration without a standardised master list, resulting in a reported count of roughly 46 lakh distinct caste/sub-caste entries — a figure widely cited as evidence of the risk of open-column caste recording.
- Errors arose from inconsistent spellings, use of surnames instead of caste names, synonyms, and lack of enumerator training on caste nomenclature.
- SECC 2011's economic/deprivation data (for identifying poor households) was released and used for scheme targeting (e.g., Ayushman Bharat eligibility), but its caste data component was set aside and an Expert Group was constituted to examine it, without a public resolution.
● Tracked since May 20, 2026 · last seen August 30, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
See it in today’s brief.
Daily current affairs with every static concept explained in place.
Read the daily brief