The design of the survey will provide close monitoring of the behavior of households, individuals, and enterprises, will eliminate the selectivity associated with migration in assessing socio-economic mobility, and will permit precise estimates from the randomization of experimental interventions.
Three main features of the design are: a. all transaction by the sampled households in rural areas will be linked with the census households and with immediate relatives of the households heads not residing in the villages to more precisely characterize social networks and interlinking of contracts, b. all individuals are administered internationally standardized cognition tests, and c. all individuals in the sampled households will be followed in each additional survey, wherever they reside, to fully measure social and spatial mobility.
The planned interval for resurveying is three years; this interval has been chosen to conserve on costs, and because three years is sufficient to begin to observe real changes that are beyond the focus of most studies.
Sample
The survey includes all persons in a random sample of 10,000 households located in 200 rural villages and 200 sampling units in urban areas of Tamil Nadu state in India. The village component of the study consists of 200 randomly selected census villages, and a random sample of 25 households from each village. The urban component of the study utilizes the National Sample Survey’s Urban Frame Survey (UFS) block divisions. The urban component consists of 200 randomly selected UFS blocks, and a random sample of 25 households from each block. The urban sample covers small, medium, and large towns, including slum communities.
Data
A very broad range of data will be required to maximize the usefulness of this research infrastructure. Each round of the survey will consist of three key elements: a census questionnaire administered to all households in each of the 400 sample units, a set of questionnaires based on in-house interviews with the 10,000 sampled households, and community inventory questionnaires.
Census of all inhabitants of the community
The census of all inhabitants of the community, based on house-to-house interviews, provides the sample frame for the next stage, and also permits measurement of the broad characteristics of inhabitants of community and their linkages with each other.
The rural household census captures household size, and demographic and economic information about the household and its members (occupation, caste, age, education, landowning details, and income from all sources), and location, including GPS coordinates. The urban household listing captures household location and size, as well as demographic and economic information for the head of the household.
Download census questionnaires: Rural Census | Urban Census
Household-level questionnaires
A comprehensive household-level survey, based on face-to-face interviews, captures detailed socioeconomic and health data for each sample household and its members. The household-level survey comprises three complementary questionnaires:
Household questionnaire
Administered to the most knowledgeable person(s), modules of the household survey include:
- Household roster
- Information on non co-resident family members, spouses, and extended family
- Cash transfers
- Participation in social welfare schemes and government benefits
- Agriculture, including cropping patterns, inputs/outputs, assets, livestock, land tenure and transactions, irrigation, farm assets, use of extension services and technology transfer
- Non-farm enterprises and self-employment
- Transfers, financial assets, insurance, borrowing, lending, and gifts
- Durable goods and household assets
- Housing conditions
- Consumption expenditure
- Social networks and information on transactions partners for all transactions in the data
Download household questionnaires: Rural Household | Urban Household
Individual household member questionnaires
Completed for each household member, modules of the individual survey include:
- Education history and basic cognitive testing for all members, as well as achievement tests for children under age 14
- Health status and utilization of health services, including anthropometric measurements , ADLs, as well as specialized modules for young children
- Migration history
- Occupation, earnings, and characteristics of employment
- Political and social activities and membership
Download individual questionnaires: Rural Individual | Urban Individual
Married women questionnaires
Administered to each ever-married woman in the household, modules of the EMW questionnaires include:
- Marital history
- Fertility history and detailed birth history
- Time use survey for woman as well as for children younger than 14 years
- Child labor
- Contraception and reproductive health
Download married women questionnaires: Rural Married Women | Urban Married Women
Community Inventory
A community inventory, based on key informant interviews, documents a broad range of natural and institutional features of the community. Key modules include:
- Infrastructure
- Formal and informal financial institutions
- Presence of various development programs
- Political organizations and local governance
- Settlement patterns and land tenure systems
- Agriculture and livestock production
- Business structure and employment
- Local prices and wage rates
- Health and education services and facilities
Download community inventory questionnaires: Rural Community | Urban Community
