NEW DELHI: The country’s socioeconomic survey architecture is set for a major upgrade. Apart from the conventional surveys like those to track household consumption expenditure, labour force participation, and the annual survey of industries, a whole new set of activities is going to be surveyed on a periodic basis.
According to official sources, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), an arm of the ministry of statistics, has identified “export and import data of small traders”, “income and living standards of sanitation workers,” “unpaid activity of individuals working in households” among several activities to be tracked for more-informed policy-making.
“All these requests (for surveys) from different ministries have been pending with us for the past two years. We will start work on them soon,” an official said.
As many as 13 new surveys are likely to be conducted, starting this year (2024-25), on a periodic basis by the NSSO.
FE had reported earlier that several ministries including agriculture, commerce, labour, tourism, health, and social justice, have separately written to the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) to conduct surveys for them. The areas covered in the proposed surveys include tourism footfall surveys of different states, ailments among the elderly, and price estimation of industrial inputs, a source had said earlier.
The delay in starting the exercise was mainly due to disagreement between MoSPI and the National Statistical Commission (NSC). An official said the NSC was not in favour of the additional surveys as they felt their views–pertaining to methodology, sample size etc.–were not being taken under consideration, but now post formation of its steering committee, the process has begun.
The steering committee is like the erstwhile Governing Council of the NSSO, and its role is to recommend and decide the survey exercise of MoSPI, an official said. Earlier this month, NSC Chairman RL Karandikar told reporters that the government should actively engage with the NSC to ensure surveys are robust and carried on a timely basis. The NSC, formed in 2006, comprises seven members, including secretary of MoSPI and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Niti Aayog.
The NSSO is mandated to conduct large-scale sample surveys in diverse fields across India. It conducts data through nationwide household surveys on various socio-economic subjects, such as Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) etc.
The NSSO also collects data on rural and urban prices for retail inflation index, conducts crop estimation surveys for state agencies and maintains a frame of urban-area units for use in sample surveys. Its survey arm has four divisions – Survey Design and Research Division (SDRD), Field Operations Division (FOD), Data Processing Division (DPD), and Survey Coordination Division (SCD).
Source; The Economic Times
