India's Socio Economic and Caste Census website down for more than two months now
New Delhi: The Indian Express reported on March 22 that India's Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) website has been inaccessible for over two months. Despite attempts to contact the Ministry of Rural Development, responsible for maintaining the portal, the ministry cited "technical reasons" for the outage but assured efforts to rectify the situation.
The SECC, conducted in 2011, was India's first-ever caste-based census since 1931. It was a paperless census conducted across 640 districts using handheld electronic devices, revealing alarming statistics about rural India. Among its findings were that one in three rural families were landless and relied on manual labor for sustenance, and nearly a quarter had no literate adults over 25 years old.
The census aimed to enhance social welfare schemes by identifying beneficiaries, including those under schemes like Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri, Jan Arogya Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin. However, the outage of the SECC website has deprived the public of crucial data.
The portal has been inaccessible since at least January 6, 2024, with the Ministry of Rural Development acknowledging the issue as an outage due to technical reasons. Despite internal discussions and assurances of restoration, the website remained offline as of March 23.
Caste censuses have been pivotal in electoral discourse, evidenced by Bihar's recent state-based caste census. Bihar's census revealed that dominant castes constituted only 15.5% of the population, with marginalized castes comprising 84%. Furthermore, about 34.13% of Bihar's families were economically poor, earning less than Rs 6,000 per month. This data prompted Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to announce significant welfare measures.
Following Bihar's lead, Andhra Pradesh initiated its own caste survey, while political parties, including the Congress, have pledged to conduct a nationwide caste census if elected after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The postponement of Census 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic marks the first delay in its 150-year history.
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Udupi: Two men from Belthangady awarded life imprisonment for attempt to murder a woman in 2022
Udupi: Two men from Belthangady have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Udupi for attempting to murder a woman in Manchikumeri in 2022.
The sentenced men, Mithun and Nagesh Poojary, are learned to have attempted to murder Sumathi, wife of Ramanath Rai, a resident of Manchikumeri, who had a Nandini Milk Parlour at Tiger Circle, Manipal.
On February 18, 2022, Sumathi was reportedly alone at home when, at around 7 pm, Mithun, learned to be her nephew, and his friend Poojary came to the house. As Sumathi opened the door, the duo barged in and tried to strangulate her with an intention of murdering her. Sumathi reportedly lost consciousness under the attack.
The men packed her body in a sack and were then putting the sack into a suitcase to carry the body out, when they noticed that Rai and neighbours had arrived. They are learned to have opened the door when Rai knocked the door and then tried to escape. They were, however, caught by the neighbours and handed over to the police.
Further, Sumathi was found by the group in an unconscious state inside the suitcase in the house. She was rushed to the Manipal Hospital and learned to have recovered after a week of medical treatment.
A case had been registered at the Manipal Police Station.
The Udupi Principal District and Sessions Court judge Kiran S Gangannavar, who heard the case, has declared both Mithun and Poojary guilty in the case. He has awarded them life imprisonment, fined them Rs 20,000 each and, under Column 325, sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and fined them Rs 5,000 each.
Judge Gangannavar has directed that, of the fine, Rs 45,000 be handed to the attack victim Sumathi as relief.
Jayarama Shetty represented the government as Public Prosecutor.
