NSSO kickstarts nationwide: 75th round of survey to include data on Swachh Bharat, education

Kolkata: The 75th round of national sample survey would include data collection on communicable diseases, Swachh Bharat and education being attained by specially-abled persons for the first time in the country during next one year from July 2017 till June 2018. In another first-time approach, the household social consumption for education survey would include students from three years, that is, pre-primary level school-goers up to thirty-five years. In the previous education survey (68th round held in 2011-12), the upper age limit of students was bracketed at 29 years, said PS Bose, Additional Director General of Survey Design and Research Division of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). [caption id=“attachment_3773055” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of the NSSO logo. Image courtesy: nic.in[/caption] Bose was speaking at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata during a regional training camp for officers who are to conduct the large-scale survey on household consumer expenditure and household social consumption on health and education, which began from 1 July nationwide. Vocational and technical education would form a special module of the surveys this time. Further, mothers and their newborns aged below 1 years of age will be considered a part of the household in which the baby was born in another notable shift from previous survey parameters. The newly introduced Swachh Bharat module would focus on the existence of toilets per household and garbage disposal facilities. The national sample size for the 75th round is 30,792. In Kolkata region alone, 35 survey officers would visit 512 rural and 372 urban areas to gather ground-level information, which is the prime source of statistical indicators on social consumption and well-being, the level of living and inequality thereof, Bose said. Data collection would be followed by data collation and validation prior to publication of official estimates for the year 2017. “The consumer expenditure survey measures the general rise in consumer prices and also nutrition consumption data which is used to study disparities in the level of nutrition. This is considered as one of the most important components of poverty level,” he said. Health survey focuses on indicators of morbidity, hospitalisation charges, utilisation of both public and private healthcare institutions, proportion of institutional childbirth etc, with special emphasis on ‘out of pocket expenses’ as well as access to government-financed health insurance programmes. The educational scenario of the country would be studied on the basis of data on qualitative aspects including literacy, educational level attained, type of institution, attendance, enrolment, reasons for drop-out, whether received free education, the cost incurred for education etc. “All these will go to build indicators for participation of the persons in the education system,” he added.