Brief Essay on the National Sample Survey

The main objective of the National Sample Survey has been to collect data on some important socio-economic aspects on a comprehensive basis for the whole country through its various rounds by using the technique of sample survey.

The First Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) was conducted in 1950; since then, information on different items has collected through various rounds of the NSS.

The topics covered include the following fertility, mortality, population growth, comically active population, family planning, employment and _c Payment, consumers’ expenditure patterns, housing manufacturing industries, physically handicapped, conditions of the aged etc.

The NFHS has collected data from a nationally representative sample of 89,777 ever-married women in the age group 13-49 from 88,562 households.

The NFHS is a collaborative project of the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, and all the Population Research Centers in the country, various data collecting organisations and the East-West Center/Macro International, United States of America, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi.

Main objective of the NFHS was to provide reliable and up-to-date state level and national level estimates on mutuality, fertility, knowledge and practice of family planning, fertility preference, infant and child mortality, utilisation of maternal and child health services, breast feeding and food supplementation practices, child nutrition and health.

A further objective is to explore the demographic and socio-economic determinants of these factors.

The information collected was intended to assist policy makers and programme administrators and researchers in assessing and evaluating population and family welfare programmes and strategies.

Some unique features of the NFHS are Uniform method of sampling, uniform method of data collection, uniform method of analysis of data and uniform way of presentation of data.

This has made inter-state comparison valid. The data collected in the NFHS are also comparable with those of the Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in many other countries. The NFHS is an important source of demographic data for various states and India as a whole.

The NFHS is one of the most completed sample surveys of its kind ever conducted in India. After completion of the data collection NFHS, the Reports have been written and published for each of the constituent state.

Two volumes have been published for India. The NFHS conducted in 1992-93 was a major landmark in the development of demographic database for India and states. ¹³

During 1998-99 a second round of the NFHS, called the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2) has started. The NFHS- 2 is another important step to strengthen the database further fo ^r the implementation of reproductive and Child Health approach, adopted by India since 1996. ¹⁴

NFHS-2 again is the outcome of collaborative efforts of many organisations such as International Institute for Population Sciences (designated by the Ministry of Health and Family Well New Delhi as a nodal agency), the United States Agency for national Development (funded the entire project of NFHS-2) Macro, East-West Center of USA (provided technical assistance).

Responsibility of data collection was entrusted to 13 reputed organisations in India including some Population Research Centers.

The NFHS-2 covers a representative sample of about 90,000 ever-married women in the age group 15-49 years, from 25 states in India. The data collection for the NFHS-2 was collected during November 1998 to March 1999 in two phases.

As NFHS-1, the NFHS-2 provides, state-level estimates on various demographic and health parameters.

One important feature of the NFHS-2 is that data on nutritional status of women and children are collected by carrying out blood tests for hemoglobin levels in addition to the measurement of their height and weight. The NFHS-2 collected information on two additional topics quality of care and status of women.