IMPORTANT SURVEYS IN INDIA – 1

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 IMPORTANT SURVEYS IN INDIA – 1

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• Surveys in India: Various government Ministries and bodies conduct regular surveys in India, to gather socio-economic and other data, to aid policy formulation. These surveys form the backbone of a statistical system, which provides inputs to governments to form proper policies. Without robust surveys, the entire exercise of making schemes and policies will remain sub-optimal.
• NSSO: The leading agency, among many others, collecting data regularly is the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). It has been conducting nation-wide sample surveys on various socio-economic aspects since 1950. These are conducted in the form of rounds extending normally over a period of one year or six months. A large number of technical terms covering a variety of subject areas were used for the conduct of these surveys. 

1. NSSO is part of MoSPI - the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (a ministry of Government of India) concerned with coverage and quality aspects of statistics released.
2. The Ministry has two wings, one relating to Statistics and the other Programme Implementation. 
3. The Statistics Wing called the National Statistical Office (NSO) consists of the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the Computer center and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). [From 2020 onwards, everything has merged into the NSO]
4. Method of working: In order to strike a balance between the urgent need for the data on wide variety of topics and the constraint of the limited resources, both financial and others, the NSS from its very inception has been a multi-subject integrated survey system. A multi subject integrated survey system is one in which several subjects of enquiry, not necessarily closely related, are simultaneously taken up in a single survey operation to optimise the use of resources, to effect economy and operational convenience and also to achieve better analysis of the survey results. 

• Range of NSSO surveys: The wide variety of subjects can broadly be classified under four categories : 

1. Household surveys on socio-economic subjects, 
2. Surveys on land holding, livestock and agriculture, 
3. Establishment surveys, and enterprise surveys, & 
4. Village surveys. 

• Under the first category come the surveys on population, birth, death, migration, fertility, family planning, morbidity, disability, employment & unemployment, agriculture and rural labour, household consumer expenditure, debt, and investment, savings, construction, capital formation, housing condition and utilization of public services in health, education and other sector etc. 
• Under the second are covered the covered the surveys on land holding, land utilisation, livestock number, product and livestock enterprises. 
• Surveys on medium and small industrial establishments and own-account enterprises not covered by the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), surveys on other non-agricultural enterprises in the unorganized sector and collection of rural retail prices from markets and shops in rural areas belong to the third category. 
• Finally the collection from sample villages of various types of information on the availability of infrastructure facility in Indian villages constitute the fourth. 
• Other NSSO surveys: Besides these, the NSS has also conducted ad-hoc surveys and pilot enquires for methodological studies, such as, surveys on small and medium irrigation projects, rural electrification, railway travel, pilot enquiries on employment-unemployment, construction activities, living condition of tribals, estimation of catch of fish from inland water, etc. Many new surveys were planned in the 2000s and carried out.

1. employment-unemployment, and consumer expenditure  (every 5 years - quinquennial)
2. unorganised enterprises in non-agricultural sectors (quinquennial)
3. population, births, deaths, disability, morbidity, fertility, maternity & child care, and family planning (every 10 years - decennial)
4. land holdings and livestock enterprises (decennial), &
5. debt, investment and capital formation (decennial).

• Not all reports were released finally by the Government, for example the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and Consumer Expenditure Survey reports.
• Socio-Economic Surveys: The Socio-Economic (SE) Surveys are conducted by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) and are in the form of Rounds, each round being normally of one-year duration.
• The 77th Round of socio-economic Survey was on three topics from January 2019 to December 2019 - Land and Livestock Holdings of Households and Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households; Debt and Investment; and Time Use Survey.
• The subject coverage of SE inquiries for different rounds is decided on the basis of a 10 year time frame. 
• In this cycle, 1 year is devoted to land and live stock holdings, debt and Investment; 1 year to social consumption ( education and health care, etc. ), 2 years to quinquennial surveys on household consumer expenditure, employment & un-employment situation and 4 years to non- agricultural enterprises, namely, manufacturing, trade and services in un-organized sector. 
• The remaining 2 years are for open rounds in which subjects of current/special interest on the demand of Central Ministries, State Governments and research organizations are covered. 
• Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (2017-2018) (NSO): The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation carried out an all-India survey on household consumption expenditure in the 75th round during the period July 2017 to June 2018. 

1. The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) is usually conducted at quinquennial intervals and the last survey on consumer expenditure was conducted in the 68th round (July 2011 to June 2012).
2. The NSS Consumer Expenditure Survey generates estimates of household Monthly Per Capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE) and the distribution of households and persons over the MPCE classes. It is designed to collect information regarding expenditure on consumption of goods and services (food and non-food) consumed by households. 
3. The report showed that consumer spending had fallen over past 10 years and the Ministry then withheld due to its ‘adverse’ findings. 
4. The Ministry claimed that results of the survey were examined and it was noted that there was a significant increase in the divergence in not only the levels in the consumption pattern but also the direction of the change when compared to the other administrative data sources like the actual production of goods and services. Concerns were also raised about the ability/sensitivity of the survey instrument to capture consumption of social services by households especially on health and education. The matter was thus referred to a Committee of experts which noted the discrepancies and came out with several recommendations including a refinement in the survey methodology.
5. The Ministry decided not to release the Consumer Expenditure Survey results of 2017-2018. It will conduct the next Consumer Expenditure Survey in 2020-2021 and 2021-22 after incorporating all data quality refinementsin the survey process.
6. This was criticised by many experts, as the poverty incidence is clearly rising in India (not falling), and if this survey is junked, then India will not have any official poverty data from 2012 till 2020!

• Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) (NSSO): The NSSO launched this new employment-unemployment survey called the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in 2017.

1. The PLFS is a continuous/regular survey for generating estimates of various labour force indicators on quarterly basis for urban areas and annual basis for both rural and urban areas, at State/UT and all-India level.
2. The Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation constituted PLFS under the chairmanship of Amitabh Kundu. The data was collected by NSSO from July 2017 to June 2018. The survey was spread over 12,773 first-stage sampling units (7,014 villages and 5,759 urban blocks) covering 1,02,113 households (56,108 in rural areas and 46,005 in urban areas) and enumerating 4,33,339 persons (2,46,809 in rural areas and 1,86,530 in urban areas).
3. Certain changes were done in survey methodology, data collection mechanism and sampling design vis-à-vis the earlier quinquennial "Employment and Unemployment surveys" of NSSO. 
4. The first PLFS report had these findings -
1. The unemployment rate (UR) in both rural and urban India is at its highest since 1972.
2. The unemployment rates among men and women in both rural and urban groups, are also the highest ever. The increase in the UR is more than three times among rural men and more than double among rural women according to the usual status since 2011-12.
3. In urban areas, the UR among men is more than twice and has increased twice among women since 2011-12. It is to be noted that the UR between 1972 and 2012 was almost static or did not have many differences (See Table 1). Besides, the UR rose sharply among youth of ages between 15-29 years and those who got better education.
4. The unemployment rates in urban areas are higher than those in rural areas. In rural areas, the UR is 5.3 per cent, whereas in urban areas, the UR is 7.8 per cent according to the usual status. The overall unemployment rate is 6.1 per cent in India according to the usual status. The rural employment rate is 8.5 per cent whereas the urban rate is 9.6 per cent. The overall unemployment rate is 8.9 per cent.
5. The government did not accept the report initially, and then accepted it much later after a lot of protest.

• Agriculture Census and Input Survey (Ministry of Agriculture): The Agriculture Census in India is conducted at an interval of five years to collect and compile data on operational holdings in the country. 

1. First agri census was in 1970-71, and the 10th was in 2015-16. The reference period for Agriculture Census is the Agricultural year (July-June).
2. The basic unit of information in the Agriculture Census is the operational holding as distinct from the ownership holding. 
3. Agriculture Census in the country is conducted in a Census – cum – Sample Survey method and data is collected three distinct phases. 
4. During Phase-I and Phase-II of the Census, data on number, area and agriculture characteristics of operational holdings are collected. The Phase-III of Agriculture Census, (Referred as Input Survey) is conducted as a follow up survey to the Agriculture Census (reference year as next year to that of the Agriculture Census) to collect data on input use pattern of operational holdings in the country. 
5. Main objectives are: (i) To describe the structure and characteristics of agriculture providing statistical data on operational holdings, operated area, land utilization, live-stock, agricultural machinery and implements, use of fertilizers, pattern of input use etc.; (ii) To provide bench-mark data needed for formulating new agricultural development programmes and evaluating their progress; (iii) To provide basic framework of operational holdings and its characteristics for carrying out future agriculture surveys; (iv) To lay basis for developing integrated programme for current agricultural statistics.

• Geographical Coverage of the Survey: The Agriculture Census 2010-11 and Input Survey 2011-12 is implemented in all States /UTs. 
• Summary of 2015-16 Agri Census - 

1. The total number of operational holdings increased from 138.35 million in 2010-11 to 146.45 million in 2015-16 showing an increase of 5.86%; 
2. The total operated area in the country has decreased from 159.59 million ha. in 2010-11 to 157.82 million ha. in 2015-16 showing a decrease of 1.11%; 
3. Maximum operational holders belonged to Uttar Pradesh (23.82 million) followed by Bihar (16.41 million), Maharashtra (15.29 million), and Madhya Pradesh (10.00 million); 
4. Out of a total of 157.82 million ha., the highest operated area was contributed by Rajasthan (20.87 million ha), followed by Maharashtra (20.51 million ha.) and Uttar Pradesh (17.45 million ha.); 
5. 14 out of 36 States/UTs in the country accounted for about 91.01% of the total number of operational holdings and about 88.19% of the total area operated; 
6. The average size of operational holding has declined to 1.08 ha. in 2015-16 as compared to 1.15 in 2010-11; 
7. The small and marginal holdings taken together (0.00-2.00 ha.) constituted 86.08% of the total holdings in 2015-16.

• Sample Registration System (Office of the Registrar General, India)
• National Family Health Survey (NFHS) (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW))
• Annual Health Survey (AHS) (Registrar General, India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India)
• Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) (MoSPI)
• RBI's Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS)
• RBI's Industrial Outlook Survey (IOS)
• RBI's Inflation Expectations Survey of Househols (IESH)
• Census of India

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