The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) will commence its 71st round of data collection pertaining to various socio-economic parameters across the country from January 1.
A total of 500 sampling units have been earmarked for the purpose in the state. The regional offices in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Kadapa will oversee the process of data collection in Telangana, coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema respectively.
The NSSO data has great significance as various agencies in India, including Planning Commission, and abroad utilise the data for estimation of poverty, construction of price Indices, employment-unemployment situation, utilisation of health and education services and so on.
The present round will be held for a period of six months until June 2014 and focus on education and health sectors.
More specifically on the utilisation of health care services, prevalence of morbidity, pre- and post-natal care for women, particulars of economic independence and details of ailments of aged persons and others will be examined in health sector.
Under education, participation of persons aged between 5 and 29 years in the education system of the country, extent of use of educational infrastructure, and incentives provided by government and private sector and extent of educational wastage in terms of dropouts. In addition to these, data will collected on IT literacy to assess the access of information technology.
In Telangana region about 33 field investigators will elicit views from respondents in ten districts, said G. Mohan Rao, deputy director general of NSSO, Hyderabad. “The survey will be based on stratified random sample; and about 98 villages and 96 urban blocks will be examined by our data collectors in Telangana region,” he said.
The process will be divided into two sub-rounds and each one lasts for three months, he said. “Between January and March we will conduct the first stage of examining sampling units, that are villages. Later, between April and June two sets of questionnaires (one on education and the other on health) will be administered to two separate groups of households each consisting of eight households in a village,” he explained.
He requested people across the State to co-operate with the field investigators in providing reliable data. “One needs to understand the importance of data being collected, these will be used by State and Central Governments to frame policies, schemes and other subsidy programmes,” he pointed out.