Participation in Education, July 1995 - July 1996

NSS 52nd Round

Sample Design

General:

A stratified two-stage design was adopted in this round. The first-stage units were the census villages for the rural areas (panchayat wards in case of Kerala) and the NSSO Urban Frame Survey(UFS) blocks for the urban areas. The second stage units were the households in both the cases.

Sampling Frame for First-Stage Units (FSUs):

The list of census villages of the 1991 census (1981 census list for Jammu & Kashmir) constituted the sampling frame for the rural areas. For Kerala, however, the list of panchayat wards was used as the sampling frame for the selection of first stage units in the rural areas. For Nagaland, the villages located within 5 km of a bus route constituted the sampling frame, whereas for Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the list of 'accessible' villages formed the sampling frame. For the urban areas, the list of NSSO Urban Frame Survey(UFS) blocks has been used as the sampling frame.

Stratification:

For the socio-economic surveys of the NSSO, each state or union territory (u.t.) is divided into one or more agro-climatic regions by grouping contiguous districts which are similar with respect to population density and crop pattern. In Gujarat, however, some districts are subdivided for the purpose of region formation on the basis of location of dry areas and the distribution of tribal population in the state. In all, there are 78 regions covering the entire geographical area of the country.

Stratification for Rural areas:

In the rural areas, each district within a region was treated as a separate stratum. However, if the 1991 census population of the district was found to be greater than or equal to 2 million (1.8 million population as per 1981 census for Jammu & Kashmir), the district was split into two or more strata, by grouping contiguous tehsils to form strata. In Gujarat, in the case of districts extending over more than one NSS region, the part of a district falling within each NSS region formed a separate stratum.

Stratification for Urban areas :

In the urban areas, strata were formed, within each NSS region, by grouping towns on the basis of the population of towns. The urban strata were formed as shown in Table.

Table: Composition of urban strata in an NSS region

Stratum No. Population size class (as per 1991 census) of towns

1 all towns with population less than 50,000
2 all towns with population 50,000 - 1, 99,999
3 all towns with population 2, 00,000 - 9, 99,999
4, 5... each city with population 10,00,000 or more

Allocation of First Stage Units (FSUs):

A sample of 13,000 FSUs (rural & urban combined) was selected as the 'central sample' at the all-India level. The sample size of FSUs (rural & urban combined) for the central sample for a state/u.t. was allocated to its rural and urban areas considering the relative sizes of the rural and urban population with double weightage to the urban areas. The state level rural sample size was allocated to the rural strata in proportion to their rural population figures as per the census. Similarly, urban sample size of the state/u.t. was allocated to the urban strata in proportion to urban population figures as per the census. All the stratum-level allocations were adjusted to multiples of 8 as far as possible (otherwise to multiples of 4) in order to allocate them equally in each sub-sample x sub-round combination (2 sub-samples x 4 sub-rounds).

Selection of First-Stage Units:

The sample FSUs in the rural areas were selected circular systematically with equal probability. In the Union Territory of Daman & Diu, the district Diu consists of only two villages. These two were selected for the survey in both the central and the state sample. Sample blocks in the urban areas were also selected circular systematically with equal probability. Sample FSUs of both the rural and urban areas were selected in the form of two independent sub-samples. The only departure from the general procedure of selection of FSUs was made for the rural areas of Arunachal Pradesh for which the procedure of cluster sampling was followed. The nucleus villages were selected circular systematically with equal probability, in the form of two independent sub-samples. A cluster, generally of 4 to 6 villages, was formed around each nucleus village.

Selection of Hamlet-Groups/ Sub-Blocks (for 'large' FSUs only):

A large FSU was divided into a suitable number of hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks having equal population content. Two hamlet-groups were selected from each large FSU in the rural areas and only one sub-block was selected from each large FSU of the urban areas.

Selection of Households (Second-Stage Units):

In each of the selected FSUs, three different enquiries, viz. "Survey on Health Care", "Survey on Participation in Education" and "Survey on Consumer Expenditure", were conducted on three independent samples of the households. For the present enquiry, i.e. survey on education, a sample of 6 households was selected for the detailed enquiry. However, before selection, the listed households were first grouped into two second-stage strata. The composition of the second-stage strata and the number of sample households selected from each of them are shown in following table.

Table: Second-stage stratum composition and number of households selected

No. Second-stage stratum Composition selected Number of households

1 households with at least one member of age group 5-24 3
years and studying in post-primary level
2 remaining households 3