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INDIA:6 National Sample Surveys,

1983-2005, entrusted to IPUMS Dr. Sula Sarkar

Research SpecialistMinnesota Population Center

e‐mail: sula@socsci.umn.edu

Acknowledgement:Dr. S.K. Nath, Director General, 

Central Statistical Organization, Government of India

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Many IPUMS researchers arerequesting Indian microdata to

study, for example:

• Infant mortality• Sex ratio• International and internal migration• Poverty impacts• Comparative studies on south Asian

countries (India, Pakistan, and Nepal)

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• The National Sample Survey (NSS) is set up by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India in 1950 to collect socio-economic data

• Collects data on:– Household Consumer Expenditure– Employment / Unemployment

• Usefulness: – Socio-economic planning and policy making

• Data from NSS helps set minimum wages for labors and dearness allowances of government employees

• Collects consumer expenditure data for national income estimation.

• Determines level of unemployment and poverty

National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO)

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Demographic data in India

• Census Data: decennial data beginning 1881• no microdata available to researchers to date

• NFHS: three phases since 1992• All India Education Survey since 1977• Annual Survey of industry since 1960• NSSO: microdata available from 1983

• P. C. Mahalanobis (1893 – 1972)The father of large scale surveysMahalanobis distance

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Spatial Resolution of NSSO surveys

Spatial resolution:• Survey data covered the whole of the India Union

with very few exceptions.

Sample design: • NSSO has developed a highly sophisticated stratified multiple stage sampling design

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Temporal Resolution: NSSO data First round: conducted 1950-51Total number of rounds: 61Series:

Employment/UnemploymentConsumer ExpendituresEnterprise Surveys Health careElderly MigrationHousing, etc.

60 CD-sets available: http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_nsso_data.htm

Data prior to 1983 needs recovery from tapes:IPUMS has proposed to assist with recovery

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NSSO integrated with IPUMS• 6 NSSO rounds (schedule 10) employment/ unemployment

• Total number of person records (IPUMS): 21 million

• Modules on: population, employment, migration

• Integration of documentation (metadata)• Synthesis of sample characteristics• Compare and contrast variables in different samples

• Integration of microdata• Use of composite coding system to preserve significant detail and harmonize microdata

• IPUMS does not standardize (reduce to lowest common denominator)

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Mapping with NSSO microdata:an example

Millennium Development Goals: Gender Inequality in Primary Schooling for 2 cohorts.

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Gender Inequality in Primary School Completion RatesBirth cohort: 1970-1974

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Gender Inequality in Primary School Completion RatesBirth cohort: 1985-1989

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Immediate steps for IPUMS-India• Recover data prior to 1983 • Complete documentation of samples entrusted to project

• Enumerator instructions• Codebook for industry, occupation, and administrative geography

• Integrate the microdata and metadata(NSSO integrated samples to be launched at the International Statistical Institute in Durham, South Africa. August, 2009—if everything nicely)

“……. we must see that our work from within is maintained at a high level of efficiency and, secondly, that we retain our initiative --- the initiative to direct our efforts, our united endeavour, towards solving either scientific problems or problems of national development, which will be continually facing us in India”---- Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis