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National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) (earlier known as National Sample Survey Organisation) under
the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation was established in 1950, with the objective of
obtaining comprehensive and continuing information relating to social, economic, demographic, industrial
and agricultural statistics through sample surveys on countrywide basis. It has been, therefore,
instrumental in developing a strong database that has helped the Central as well as State Governments in
development planning and policy formulations.

Although, at the beginning, the NSSO started with the objective of collecting data for the construction of
national accounts and its area of operation was kept restricted only to the rural areas of the country
during the two rounds, it gradually expanded its geographical coverage and the scope of its enquires to
cover, by and large, all the important socio-economic aspects influencing the life of the population in rural
as well as urban areas. The NSSO now operates over the whole of rural and urban areas of India
excepting only a few inaccessible and difficult pockets.

The wide variety of subjects brought under the coverage of surveys conducted so far by the NSSO can
broadly be classified under four categories:

a) Household surveys on socio-economic subjects,

b) Surveys on land holding, livestock and agriculture,
c) Establishment surveys and enterprise surveys
d) Village surveys.

Under the first category come the surveys on population, birth, death, migration, fertility, family planning,
morbidity, disability, employment & unemployment, agriculture and rural labour, household consumer
expenditure, debt, and investment, savings, construction, capital formation, housing condition and
utilization of public services in health, education and other sector etc.

Under the second category, the surveys on land holding, land utilisation, livestock number, product and
livestock enterprises are covered.

Under the third category, Surveys on medium and small industrial establishments and own-account
enterprises not covered by the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), surveys on other non-agricultural
enterprises in the unorganized sector and collection of rural retail prices from markets and shops in rural
areas are covered.

Under the fourth category, surveys include collection from sample villages of various types of information
on the availability of infrastructure facility in Indian villages.

Besides these, the NSSO has also conducted ad-hoc surveys and pilot enquires for methodological studies,
such as, surveys on small and medium irrigation projects, rural electrification, railway travel, pilot
enquiries on employment-unemployment, construction activities, living condition of tribals, estimation of
catch of fish from inland water, etc.

NSSO has now drawn up a ten-year programme for the conduct of socioeconomic surveys. According to
this programme the subjects to be covered in the NSSO during a decade will be as follows:

• employment-unemployment, and consumer expenditure

• unorganised enterprises in non-agricultural sectors
• population, births, deaths, disability, morbidity, fertility, maternity & child care, and family planning
• land holdings and livestock enterprises
• debt, investment and capital formation

The NSSO has four Divisions namely, Survey Design & Research Division (SDRD), Data Processing Division
(DPD), Field Operations Division (FOD) and Coordination & Publication Division (CPD) to carry out different
responsibilities.

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Survey Design & Research Division (SDRD) located at Kolkata is responsible for planning of the survey,
finalization of sample design, schedules, instructions and tabulation programme, report writing, etc.

Data Processing Division (DPD) with its headquarters at Kolkata process the data collected through socio-
economic surveys through its six Data Processing Centres across the country.

Field Operations Division (FOD) is responsible for collection of data from the field on various surveys of
the NSSO. The FOD with head quarters at New Delhi functions through a network of 6 Zonal Offices, 49
Regional Offices and 116 Sub-Regional Offices spread throughout the length and breadth of the country.

Coordination & Publication Division (CPD) coordinates the activities of all the Divisions.

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) functions under the overall direction of National Statistical
Commission (NSC). The National Statistical Commission has the requisite independence and autonomy of
decision making in the collection; processing and the publication of NSS data. The autonomy includes the
choice of subjects or items on which data have to be collected in a given field of investigation or in a given
period, the frequency with which the data on any item are to be collected, the preparatory or pilot work to
be undertaken on different subjects, the sample design to be adopted, the tabulation to be prepared, the
form in which the data are to be collected and processed and the analysis and publication of results.

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