Final Assignment (30 marks)

You have joined an NGO which works for the cause of women and child empowerment in 12
different states of the country as a Program Manager. Since you cannot visit all the project
offices, you are given a snapshot of the state profiles using the most recent National Family
Health Survey (NFHS) data on demographics, nutrition, sanitation and women empowerment
(see annex for more information on NFHS). You are required to make the following calculations
and present your data analysis and reflections to your supervisor.

Assignment:
1. (a) What is the average participation of women in household decisions in urban and
rural areas across the 12 states? What about the average access to banking services for
women? What is the difference between the average values for urban and rural areas for
both these variables? Which one has a greater urban-rural gap?

(b) Present the fertility rates across different states using a chart. Also include a line in
your chart that shows the average for all 12 states1. This will allow your supervisor to see
at a glance which states are above the average and which ones are below.

(c) Calculate the mean and the standard deviation of the literacy rates of men and
women. The average literacy rate for men is higher than for women in the states where
your NGO works. How would you interpret the standard deviation values (in English
please, no math required here!)?

2. Recent studies in many parts of India have established that interventions in sanitation can
lead to better outcomes in nutrition in children2.

(a) How would you check if there is a relationship between sanitation access and
nutritional outcomes in women as well, in the given set of states? (Use an appropriate
chart to check this)

(b) You are presented with an opportunity to partner with the Swachh Bharat Mission to
improve access to sanitation in your 12 states. Given the relationship you have found in
(a), would you go ahead with this? Does it fit with your organization’s mission? Recall
that your NGO’s mission is women and child empowerment, and improving women’s
nutritional status is well within this mission. But also recall that resources are scarce and
you would like to allocate them to the most effective way of achieving your objectives.

1
To create combination charts, see: https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/1265-excel-add-average-
line-to-chart.html or other such sources online
2
For more details, see: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/investing-in-health-through-
hygiene/article6254915.ece and http://riceinstitute.org/blog/village-sanitation-and-child-health-effects-and-
external-validity-in-a-randomized-field-experiment-in-rural-indiajeffrey-hammer-and-dean-spears/
3. You are planning a mass vaccination campaign for infants in Bihar in 2025.

(a) How will you estimate approximately the number of children that will be born to
your target group? You may make the following assumptions to calculate this value:

o Your target group is the married females who currently belong to the age
group 20-29, as per the Census 2011.
o Hint: Explore www.censusindia.gov.in! Recall from Lecture 1 that the
population data are presented in the PCA tables or the A-series.
o You can assume that the fertility rate is constant over this decade.
o Assume that these women will bear all their children within this time period.

(b) As countries develop, fertility rates have shown to decline. Assuming that the fertility
rate of the states in India declines at a rate of 10% for every five years, calculate the
fertility rate of Bihar, Sikkim and West Bengal in the year 2050.

4. For ease of operation, you would like to split the entire team into three sub-groups who are
based in (i) the North and the Centre, (ii) the East and the North-east and (iii) the West and
the South of India. Categorize the 12 states into these groups and calculate the mean and
standard deviation for the following variables: fertility rate, literacy rate and access to
banking. Present your sub-groups and their characteristics in a table to allow your
supervisor to identify patterns for each of these sub-groups.

5. Now that you have done your ground study, you are asked to present the initial findings on
Questions 1-4 to your supervisor as a 2-3 page memo. Present your data analysis, charts, as
well as the inferences you make from these in simple and clear language. Also include a short
paragraph at the end explaining the source of data you are using, and why using sample data
is good enough for this analysis (Answer in not more than 2-3 pages. Please submit this
word document and your excel file with calculations)
Annex: About the data
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted
throughout India by the International Institute of Population Sciences as designated by the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Three rounds of the survey have been conducted since
the first survey in 1992-93 and the data from the fourth round is being released. The survey
provides state and national information for India on fertility, infant and child mortality, the
practice of family planning, maternal and child health, reproductive health, nutrition, anemia,
utilization and quality of health and family planning services. The information is useful for
governments, non-government and research organizations to monitor and evaluate policies and
programmes related to population, health, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS, etc.,

The NFHS-4 survey data, parts of which are used here, was conducted for the year 2015-16 for
(a sample of) approximately 568,200 households (large enough). The NFHS has a systematic
sampling procedure (selected properly) which helps us to generalize the findings to the whole of
India (the population). For the fourth round, the sample consisted of approximately 28,000
clusters (small geographically defined areas) throughout the country. The households in each of
these clusters have recently been listed or enumerated. A sample of households was then
scientifically selected to be included from the list in each of the clusters and interviewed using
the Household Questionnaire. Women and men within these households were interviewed using
an Individual Questionnaire.

Refer http://rchiips.org/nfhs/index.shtml for more information.