Parliament Question: Exclusion of rural households due to outdated beneficiary data

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 932 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06/02/2026 EXCLUSION OF RURAL HOUSEHOLDS DUE TO OUTDATED BENEFICIARY DATA 932 Shri Raghav Chadha: Will the Minister of Rural Development be pleased to state: (a) whether Government is aware that rural households are excluded from welfareschemes due to outdated or incomplete beneficiary data, if so, the details thereof; (b) details of the number of households identified as excluded or pending inclusion in thelast five years, State-wise and year-wise; (c) the number of applications received, approved and rejected by Government for ruralhouseholds seeking inclusion in major welfare schemes in the last five years; and (d) the steps being taken by Government to update beneficiary databases and enableinclusion of eligible households? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI KAMLESH PASWAN) (a) to (d): The Government is aware that certain households may face exclusion due to outdated or incomplete beneficiary data. To address this, Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 was conducted by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) in collaboration with States/UTs. This census provides comprehensive data on various socio-economic aspects of households, including housing, land ownership, educational status, gender status, disability, occupation, asset ownership, Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) classification, and income. The SECC data reflect the socio-economic status of 17.97 crore rural households, leading to the automatic exclusion of 7.07 crore (39.34%) households from poverty based on 13 parameters. Additionally, 0.16 crore (0.89%) households were automatically included as the poorest of the poor based on 5 parameters, and 10.74 crore (59.77%) households were considered for deprivation. In SECC 2011, rural households were categorized into three groups: (i) "automatically excluded households," (ii) "automatically included households," and (iii) "deprived households," based on the collected data. The data of States/UTs in respect of rural households which falls under the above three categories are at Annexure. Under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin(PMAY-G), there was a need to meet the new demand that arose during the intervening period and to meet gaps due to reduction in number of eligible beneficiary in SECC 2011 based Permanent Wait List (PWL). The Government conducted Awaas+ 2018 survey during January 2018 to March 2019 to identify those beneficiaries which claimed to have been left out under the SECC 2011 survey and thus Page 1 of 4prepared an additional list of potentially eligible beneficiaries. During Awaas+ 2018 survey, a total of 3.90 crore potentially eligible households were registered by the States/UTs and after remanding/verification by Gram Sabhas, a total of 2.197 crore were found potentially eligible by the States/UTs. Of the overall mandate of 4.95 crore households, 2.105 crore beneficiary households have been allocated from SECC 2011 survey database and 2.040 crore households have been allocated from Awaas+ 2018 survey database after following due verification process by Gram Sabhas and Appellate Process thereafter. The Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of PMAY-G for saturating the Awaas + (2018) list (after updation) and balance eligible households in SECC 2011 PWL by providing assistance within overall ceiling of 2 crore pucca houses with basic amenities till March, 2029. The Union Cabinet has approved the conduct of exercise for updating the Awaas + 2018 list for identifying additional eligible rural households for getting benefits under the scheme using modified exclusion criteria. In line with the approval of the Union Cabinet, a nationwide survey is being conducted through Awaas + 2024 Mobile App using eKYC face based authentication. The App has provision for both self-survey and assisted survey through pre-registered surveyors. The survey began with the registration of surveyors by the States/UTs. Thereafter, Awaas+ 2024 household survey has also started from 27.12.2024. The initial deadline for completion of the Awaas+ 2024 survey was 31.03.2025. This initial timeline was extended till 30th April 2025 and then till 15th May 2025 for all States/ UTs. Thereafter, the States/UTs who requested for extension in timeline were granted additional time for completion of the survey exercise. At present, the States/UTs are conducting the corroboration of Self-Survey cases and verification and deletion of survey cases flagged by the System. This step is to be completed prior to generation of the Gram Panchayat wise Priority lists from the Awaas+ 2024 household survey. MORD is implementing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) which is a demand-driven wage employment Scheme which provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. As per Schedule-II of the MGNREGA, the adult member of every household residing in any rural area and willing to do unskilled manual work may submit the names, age and the address of the household to the Gram Panchayat at the village level, in whose jurisdiction they reside, for registration of their household for issuance of a job card. Further, it is also stated that the households can register themselves under MGNREGS and seek employment at multiple fora including the Gram Panchayats. The field authorities have been instructed to organize Rojgar Diwas at least once every month for covering willing unskilled labours. The updating of the database of the beneficiary is a continuous process which is performed by the Programme Implementation Agency (PIA) or implementing agencies in the NREGASoft portal on a regular basis. National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) is a social security programme implemented by MoRD for the most vulnerable persons of our society living below poverty line, both in rural and urban areas irrespective of the category of the beneficiaries. NSAP caters to 3.09 crore BPL beneficiaries with a scheme-wise ceiling/ cap for each State/UT on the number of beneficiaries [fixed in Nov., 2012 and recently revised in Sept, 2022]. At present, the pension schemes under NSAP have achieved almost 100% saturation. Page 2 of 4Under NSAP, if there are more eligible beneficiaries, states have the option to provide financial assistance from their own sources. As per information received from States/UTs, about 5.86 crore additional beneficiaries are assisted through State pension schemes. However, beneficiaries are removed from the data-base due to various reasons such as death of beneficiary, duplicate record, migration, not meeting eligibility criteria, invalid Bank/ Post Office Account, Auto-stoppage by bank through PFMS (Public Finance Management System) due to death of beneficiaries etc. To reduce exclusion errors, a Digital Life Certificate (DLC) mobile application has been developed for Aadhaar- based biometric verification of beneficiaries under NSAP. The application enables real-time generation of life certificates through biometric or facial authentication, thereby reducing exclusion errors, particularly among senior citizens, and ensuring continuity of pension benefits. The responsibility for implementation of the schemes, including identification and verification of beneficiaries, disbursement and stoppage of pensions, and annual verification, rests with the respective States/UTs. ***** Page 3 of 4Annexure Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) to (d) of the Rajya Sabha Unstarred Q.No.932 reg. “Exclusion of Rural Households Due to Outdated Beneficiary Data” to be answered on 06.02.2026. Details of households (State/UT wise) categorised into automatically excluded, automatically included and deprived as per SECC 2011 Automatically Automatically Total Excluded Included Deprived States/UTs Households Households Households Households JAMMU & KASHMIR 1601606 761875 13791 586345 HIMACHAL PRADESH 1263756 840852 1938 259855 PUNJAB 3269467 2438567 8004 778245 CHANDIGARH 15657 9250 10 3925 UTTARAKHAND 1479742 823330 4726 429888 HARYANA 2969509 1779954 6519 997129 NCT OF DELHI 1051097 881667 1127 89744 RAJASTHAN 10223073 4069999 72091 5165212 UTTAR PRADESH 26015592 12466832 68190 10381355 BIHAR 17829066 4793001 37657 10876054 SIKKIM 88723 39442 235 33480 ARUNACHAL PRADESH 201842 118987 3559 72937 NAGALAND 284310 97323 969 182441 MANIPUR 448163 147003 4963 236653 MIZORAM 111626 44437 512 66499 TRIPURA 697062 165435 33343 401458 MEGHALAYA 485897 151711 1224 327506 ASSAM 5743835 1689138 33451 2892859 WEST BENGAL 15756750 3302481 203209 10056266 JHARKHAND 5044234 1566811 52045 2694061 ODISHA 8677615 1628400 119772 5730372 CHHATTISGARH 4540999 819609 112084 3179327 MADHYA PRADESH 11288946 3301696 396787 6748026 GUJARAT 6920473 3236193 31216 2967972 DAMAN AND DIU 31795 16707 3519 6313 DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI 45352 15780 298 25378 MAHARASHTRA 13841960 5440356 227678 6064157 ANDHRA PRADESH 9344180 3595077 59470 4822104 TELANGANA 5643739 3143322 13543 2136159 KARNATAKA 8048664 4022702 30074 2836539 GOA 220731 185010 135 23816 LAKSHADWEEP 10929 9410 13 1455 KERALA 6319215 4388457 14289 1469167 ***** Page 4 of 4