The NSSO last collected data on health and education in 2014 National Sample Survey. (Representational)
The government's top survey agency has started collecting data on communicable diseases in the country for the first time, officials of the National Sample Survey Office or NSSO said today. "For the first time in NSS health survey, the data collected will enable assessment of population who are affected by some widespread communicable diseases," AK Biswas, NSSO Deputy Director General (Field Operations Divisions, Kolkata), was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.
The NSSO, which conducts the National Sample Survey or NSS, now in its 75th edition, started collecting data on July 1 covering household consumer expenditure and household social consumption such as education and health.
Mr Biswas said the survey will collect data on how much Indian households spent on treating communicable diseases in order to find out the number of people who fell ill. It will include details about the number of kids up to five years who have been immunised from communicable diseases or left out from anti-disease programmes.
The current survey will also collect data on the government's
Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, TK Saha, NSSO Additional Director General (Data Processing Division), said. Details about what the survey will focus on regarding the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan were not immediately available.
The NSS on education will expand to include details about vocational and professional training of the respondents, and how much they spent on learning those skills, Debashis Chakraborty, NSSO Deputy Director General (Eastern Zone), said.
Data will be collected till June 30, 2018, from a sample size of 30,792 respondents in the states, of which at least 17,236 will be from rural locations and the rest urban. The final data will show how much households in India spent between, on the one hand consumer goods and on the other hand education and health, from their total income.
"The 75th round is a unique round. For the first time, it covers household consumer expenditure and household social consumption - health and education," PS Bose, NSSO Additional Director General (Survey Design and Research Division), said.
The
NSSO last collected data on household consumer expenditure in 2011-12 as part of the National Sample Survey 68th edition; it last collected data on health and education in the NSS 71th edition in 2014.
The survey acts as a
primary source of statistical information for policymakers to see how much people are spending on household social consumption (health and education), apart from giving an insight into household consumer expenditure.
The survey captures not only consumption level but also the consumption pattern, which helps in arriving at the Consumer Price Index and other similar indices. The Consumer Price Index shows the average prices of a group of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care.
Data on food consumption is useful in checking regions that get proper nutrition and those that don't, and the reasons for it. "This is considered as one of the most important components of the official measure of poverty," an official was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.
With inputs from IANS.