Age of Planning and the Nation Sample Survey

The age of planning is very important for solving the problems in the long term as well as maximising the solution based on the data collected from the various agencies like the National Sample Survey. Let’s talk about the National Sample Survey in detail. 

National Sample Survey

The National Sample Survey (NSS) is one of the oldest household sample surveys, which came into existence in 1950. The survey is conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), now called National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), regularly. NSSO is India’s data collection agency. NSSO has been under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation since 1972. Previously, there were no studies available on the magnitude and pattern related to poverty for implementing policy and programs. Hence, as a solution, NSS was born to gather national information related to households, consumption, etc. The NSS has four divisions:

• Survey Design and Research Division
• Field Operation Division
• Data Processing Division 
• Survey Coordination Division

Setting Up of the National Sample Survey

The National Sample Survey is a household sample survey that came into existence in 1950. The first round of surveys of NSS was conducted in 1950-51. It had information regarding the price of essential commodities, land utilisation, and daily wages of skilled and unskilled labourers at the village level. 

The National Sample Survey is a multiple subject sample survey program that was launched to collect data on the various aspects of the Indian economy, both by central and state governments. The main objective of the National Sample Survey when it was started in 1950 was to collect data for the construction of national accounts, and it was operational only in rural areas of the country. Slowly and gradually, NSS started increasing its geographical coverage and the socio-economic aspects which influenced the life of the population in rural as well as urban areas.

The National Sample Survey is now operational in almost all parts of India, including rural and urban areas, except in a few inaccessible pockets. There are a variety of subjects that come under the surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey, which are broadly falling under four categories.

• A survey that involves land holdings, livestock, and agriculture
• Village surveys
• Surveys of households related to socio-economic subjects
• Survey related to enterprises and establishments 

Besides this, the National Sample Survey conducts ad-hoc surveys on rural electrification, living conditions of tribals, construction activities, small and medium irrigation projects, etc. NSS has drawn a ten-year program for conducting socio-economic surveys. According to the ten-year program, the subjects which come under NSS for a decade are listed below-

• Unorganised sector in the non-agricultural sector
• Population, morbidity, fertility, family planning, etc
• Landholdings 
• Debt and capital formation
• Employment -unemployment  

NSS has changed its method of collection of data in recent times. This happened in the collection of data of the 55th round when a different reporting period was adopted for specific types of consumption expenditures.

Evaluating the Data That Bombards Us Every Day

There was a huge need for updating the documents. This need was felt both by one who was designing the surveys and even by data users. Hence, now the present data objective is to meet this need. This document includes the topics related to socio-economic aspects and does not include terms that are included in the Annual Survey of Industries, crop surveys, etc. The first round of samples in 1950 was based on a random sample that only had 1,833 villages out of a total of 5,60,000 villages. In 1950-51 when the first round was conducted at the household level, data were collected on the demographic characteristics and land ownership. In addition, there was a detailed collection of data on a monthly and weekly basis. 

After that first round, more than 60 rounds of surveys were conducted. There has been an increase in demand for disaggregated information. Therefore, the sample size of the rounds has expanded significantly. From the 1,833 villages in the first round to more than 14,000 rural villages and blocks, the increase has been tremendous.

Importance of Statistics

As discussed above, the NSSO has increased its data samples from 1,833 villages to more than 14,000 villages. With the increase in the sample size in each round, there was a decision made to have two rounds. The first one is a ‘thick’ round which was done at approximately a five years gap and included large samples of households (approx. 1,20,000 samples). The second one is a ‘thin’ round which is done while going ahead with smaller samples. 

The National Sample Survey initiated the nation-wise and continuous surveys in 1950. This survey was started because of the proposal from P.C. Mahalanobis so that the gap is filled in socio-economic planning and policymaking. 

The government bases of data or statistics are being made by analysing the data of the National Sample Survey. To understand better with an example, the consumption expenditure data which is collected by NSSO is used to push the population above the poverty line. This could be done by setting up a minimum level of monthly expenditure so that anyone who spends below that minimum expenditure level is considered poor. 

Conclusion

We have discussed the age of planning, keeping in mind the National Sample Survey, which is carried out by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). The National Sample Survey (NSS) is responsible for conducting large-scale surveys in multiple fields. The primary data is collected from the rural and urban household surveys considering the socio-economic aspects. Besides these surveys, they also collect data on various rural and urban prices. The data also helps in improving the crop statistics through the method of crop estimation surveys from state governments.