'Non- responsiveness' to NSO surveys doubles in 5 years, says Mospi

The number of people averse to the surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) has more than doubled over the past five years between the 75th National Sample Survey (NSS) round (July 2017- June 2018) and the 79th NSS round (July 2022-June 2023), the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (Mospi) said on Friday. 

The ministry said that nearly 6.9 per cent people in urban areas surveyed by the NSO for the 79th NSS round did not participate in the exercise, while the number of people in rural India that refused to participate in these surveys stood at 3.9 per cent.

In contrast, the non-response rate for the 75th round of NSS was 2.8 per cent in urban areas and 1.5 per cent in rural areas.

Speaking at the conference organised to discuss the issue of ‘non-responsiveness’ to its sample surveys, Amitava Saha, deputy director general, NSO said it is predominantly an urban phenomenon, which is increasing at a faster pace. 

“People from higher income groups, both in the rural and urban areas are more reluctant to participate in the surveys, with many of them refusing to provide information. Among other probable causes, the refusal by gated communities to provide access and non-cooperation by the households are also significant,” he added. 

Moreover, the non-responsiveness in the recently conducted Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) from August 2022 to July 2023 stood at 9.8 per cent in cities and 4.1 per cent in villages.

An ‘income category’ wise analysis of the HCES data showed that non-responsiveness in the ‘high income’ category of the urban areas grew to 11 per cent in HCES 2022-23 as compared to 3.3 per cent in the 68th NSS round (2011-12).

Similarly, non-responsiveness among the high income category in rural areas increased to 3.9 per cent, from 1.3 per cent during the same time period. 

Saurabh Garg, secretary, MoSPI said the ministry is also working to assuage data privacy concerns of the households, which can often act as a hindrance to the informants providing information. 

“People have apprehensions about data anonymisation. The ministry has been doing this for the last 7 decades and we are always cognisant of this,” he said.

Meanwhile, representatives from several Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), who attended the conference highlighted the issue of security in granting access to the field enumerators and also asked the survey body to tweak the questionnaires so that the residents find it easy to respond. 

“Residents often are not able to respond to certain questions that require them to impart many personal details. Moreover, it is required that field enumerators adopt digital means to canvas the responses, so that residents can respond at their convenience,” said one of the RWA representatives at the meeting.