India - Employment and Unemployment, July 2009 - June 2010, 66th Round

The 66th round (July 2009-June 2010) of NSS was earmarked for survey on 'Household Consumer Expenditure' and 'Employment and Unemployment'. The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union except (i) interior villages of Nagaland situated beyond five kilometres of the bus route and (ii) villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year. All the sample first stage units of both rural and urban areas of Leh, Kargil and Poonch districts of Jammu & Kashmir became casualty and therefore these districts were outside the survey coverage. In addition to these, all the sample first stage units of the following areas were casualty in different sub-rounds: (i) in sub-rounds 1, 2, and 4, both rural and urban areas of Rajouri district of Jammu & Kashmir, (ii) in sub-round 2, urban areas of Lakhisarai district of Bihar, (iii) in sub-round 3, rural areas of Doda district of Jammu & Kashmir. The estimates of the different sub-rounds, therefore, excluded these areas. The period of survey was of one year duration starting on 1st July 2009 and ending on 30th June 2010. The survey period of this round was divided into four sub-rounds of three months' duration each, the 1st sub-round period ranging from July to September 2009, the 2nd sub-round period from October to December 2009 and so on. In each of these four sub-rounds equal number of sample villages/ blocks (FSUs) were allotted for survey with a view to ensuring uniform spread of sample FSUs over the entire survey period.
Sample Design
A stratified multi-stage design was adopted for the 66th round survey. The first stage units (FSU) were the 2001 census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. In addition, two non-UFS towns of Leh and Kargil of Jammu & Kashmir were also treated as FSUs in the urban sector. The ultimate stage units (USU) were households in both the sectors. Hamlet-groups/sub-blocks constituted the intermediate stage whenever these were formed in the sample FSUs.

Selection of the first-stage units: The various steps involved before making the selection of the FSUs are discussed at length in the following few paragraphs before taking up the issue of selection of USUs within FSUs.

Sampling Frame for First Stage Units: For the rural sector, the list of 2001 census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) constituted the sampling frame. For the urban sector, the list of latest available UFS blocks constituted the sampling frame. For non-UFS towns, frame consisted of the individual towns (only two towns, viz., Leh & Kargil constituted this frame).

Stratification of the first stage units: Within each district of a State/ UT, two basic strata were formed as follows:
i) rural stratum comprising of all rural areas of the district and
(ii) urban stratum comprising of all the urban areas of the district.

However, within the urban areas of a district, if there were one or more towns with population 10 lakhs or more as per population census 2001 in a district, each of them formed a separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the district were considered as another basic stratum.

Sub-stratification: There was no sub-stratification in the urban sector. However, to net adequate number of child workers, for all rural strata, each stratum was divided into 2 sub-strata as follows:

sub-stratum 1: all villages with proportion of child workers (p) >2P (where P is the average proportion of child workers for the sate/ UT as per Census 2001)

sub-stratum 2: remaining villages

Allocation of FSU's among Strata: At the all-India level, a total number of 12784 FSUs were allocated for survey in the central sample. In addition, 24 State sample FSUs (16 for rural sector and 8 for urban sector) of Leh and Kargil districts of J & K were included in the central sample. The total number of sample FSUs was allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to population as per census 2001 subject to the availability of investigators and ensuring minimum sample allocation to each State/ UT. The State/ UT level sample size was allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as
per census 2001 with double weightage to urban sector subject to the restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, etc. did not exceed the rural sample size. A minimum of 16 FSUs (to the extent possible) was allocated to each state/ UT separately for rural and urban areas. Further the State level allocations for both rural and urban areas were adjusted marginally in a few cases to ensure that each stratum/ sub-stratum got a minimum allocation of 4 FSUs. Within each sector of a State/UT, the respective sample size was allocated to the different strata/ sub-strata in
proportion to the population as per census 2001. Allocations at stratum/ sub-stratum level were adjusted to multiples of 4 with a minimum sample size of 4 and equal number of samples was allocated among the four sub rounds.

Selection of first-stage units: For the rural sector, from each stratum/ sub-stratum, required number of sample villages were selected by probability proportional to size with replacement (PPSWR), size being the population of the village as per Census 2001. For urban sector, from each stratum FSUs were selected by using Simple Random Sampling Without Replacement (SRSWOR). Both rural and urban samples were drawn in the form of two independent sub-samples.

Selection of Ultimate Stage Units (USU) within a FSU: The remaining paragraphs of this sub-section outlines the various steps leading to the actual selection of USUs within a FSU.

Selection of hamlet-groups/sub-blocks: Selected FSUs with approximate population 1200 or more were divided into a suitable number (say, D) of 'hamlet-groups' in the rural sector and 'sub-blocks' in the urban sector as stated below:

=============================================
approximate present population
of the sample FSU no. of hgs/sbs to be formed
=============================================
less than 1200 (no hamlet-groups/sub-blocks) 1
1200 to 1799 3
1800 to 2399 4
2400 to 2999 5
3000 to 3599 6
…………..and so on
=============================================

For rural areas of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand (except four districts Dehradun (Plains), Nainital (Plains), Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar), Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Doda, Leh (Ladakh), Kargil districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Idukki district of Kerala, the number of hamlet-groups were formed as follows:

=================================================
approximate present population
of the sample village no. of hgs to be formed
=================================================
less than 600 (no hamlet-groups) 1
600 to 899 3
900 to 1199 4
1200 to 1499 5
.………..and so on
=================================================

Hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks were formed in the sample FSU by more or less equalising populations. Two hamlet-groups (hg)/ sub-blocks (sb) were selected from a large FSU, wherever hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks were formed. This was done in the following manner - one hg/ sb with maximum percentage share of population was always selected and termed as hg/ sb 1; one more hg/ sb was selected from the remaining hg's/ sb's by simple random sampling (SRS) and termed as hg/ sb 2. Listing and selection of the households was done independently in the two selected hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks. The FSUs without hg/ sb formation were treated as sample hg/ sb number 1.

Sampling frame of households: All households listed in a village/UFS block where no hamlet-group/sub-block formation was done, or the households listed in the two selected hamlet-groups/sub-blocks of the village/UFS block where hamlet-group/subblock formation was done, constituted the sampling frame of households.

Stratification of rural households: For employment and un-employment survey of NSS 66th round, all households listed in the selected FSU/hamlet group/sub-blocks were stratified into three second stage strata (SSS). The three second-stage-strata (SSS) formed in the rural areas were:


================================================================================
SSS Rural number of households to be surveyed
--------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------- FSU without hg/sb----------FSU with hg/sb
formation formation
composition of SSS (for each hg/sb)
================================================================================
SSS 1: ...... relatively affluent households..................................... 2.....................................1

SSS 2:....... of the remaining , households having principal........... 4.................................... 2
earning from non- agricultural activity

SSS 3:........other households........................................................ 2......................................1

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Identification of affluent households was done by taking into account factors generally associated with affluent households such as: ownership of motor car/ jeep/ tractor/ combine-harvester/ truck/ bus/ etc.; consumer durables like DVD/ VCP/ refrigerator/ washing machine etc.; ownership of large business/ highly remunerative profession/ high salaried income etc.; ownership of spacious pucca house in good condition; ownership of 7 hectares or more of cultivable land; ownership of 3.5 hectares or more of irrigated land; ownership of a good number of cattle, buffaloes and camels (10 or more in number).

Stratification of urban households: Three second stage strata (SSS) were formed in the urban areas as follows:
===============================================================================
SSS Urban Number of households to be surveyed
---------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------FSU without hg/sb --------- FSU with hg/sb
......................................................................................... formation............... formation (for each hg/sb)
Composition of SSS
===============================================================================
SSS 1: households having MPCE of top 10% of urban ............ 2...................................1
population ( MPCE > B )

SSS 2: households having MPCE of middle 60% of................ 4.................................. 2
urban population ( A <= MPCE <=B)

SSS 3: households having MPCE of bottom 30% of................ 2................................. 1
urban population ( MPCE < A )

==============================================================================


The cut-off points 'A' and 'B' (in Rs.) were determined from NSS 61st round data for each NSS region for urban areas in such a way that top 10% of the population have MPCE more than 'B' and bottom 30% of the population have MPCE less than A. 2.3.5 Selection of households: For employment-unemployment survey a total of 8 households were selected from each village/FSU. In both rural and urban areas, in case no hamlet-group/sub-block formation was done in the village/block, a number of 2, 4 and 2 households were selected from the second stage strata SSS1, SSS2 and SSS3, respectively. In case hamlet-groups/sub-blocks were formed in the village/block, a
number of 1, 2 and 1 households were selected respectively from the second stage strata SSS1, SSS2 and SSS3 of each of the hamlet-groups/sub-blocks. The sample households from each of the second stage strata were selected by SRSWOR.

Number of village/blocks allotted for survey in the NSS 66th round along with the number of village/blocks actually surveyed and number of persons enumerated in respect of employment and unemployment survey for different states and union territories are shown in Table-B1 as attached in the Extrenal Resources.