National Sample Survey 2004-2005 (61st round) - Schedule 10 - Employment and Unemployment

Block 0: Descriptive identification of sample household: This block is meant for recording descriptive identification particulars of the sample household and the sample village/block to which the sample household belongs. All the items in this block are self-explanatory. Items 4 and 5 are applicable to rural areas only and a dash '-' will be put against this item in urban schedule. The name of the hamlet to which the sample household belongs will be recorded against the fifth item 'hamlet name'. On the other hand, for a sample village with no hamlet group selection, a dash (-) is to be recorded against this item. Item 6 is applicable to urban areas only and a dash (-) will be put against this item in rural schedules. The entry against the last item, viz., 'name of informant', will be the name of the principal informant, i.e., the person from whom the bulk of the information is collected.

Block 1: Identification of sample household: The identification particulars of the sample household are to be recorded against items 1, 4 to 15. The entries against items 2 and 3 are already printed in the schedule. Items 1 and 4-12 will be copied from the relevant items of block 1 of schedule 0.0.

Block 2: Particulars of field operation: The identity of the Investigator, Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent associated, date of survey/ inspection/ scrutiny of schedules, despatch, etc., will be recorded in this block against the appropriate items in the relevant columns. Besides, from the 46th round onwards, person codes of field officials have been introduced which are to be recorded against item 1(ii) (for central sample only). If the schedule is required to be canvassed for more than one day, the first day of survey is to be recorded against the item serial number 2(i). Total time taken to canvass schedule 10, which will include time taken to canvass block 9 also, will be recorded in item 4. Time taken to canvass block 9 only will be recorded against item 5. Entries in item 4 and 5 will be made in whole number in minutes The time required to canvass the schedule should be the actual time to canvass the schedule and will not include the time needed by the investigator to finalise the schedule.

Block 3: Household characteristics: Certain household characteristics, such as, household size, household type, religion, social-group, household industry, household occupation, monthly household consumer expenditure, number of members who got work for at least 60 days in public works during the last 365 days, land owned/ land possessed as on the date of survey, land cultivated (including orchard and plantation) during July 2003 - June 2004, etc., which are intended to be used mainly as classificatory characteristics in studying the indicators of employment and unemployment will be recorded in this block.

Block 3.1: Household indebtedness: This block is intended to collect information on the extent of indebtedness of the rural labour households, i.e., those with household type code 2 or 3 against item 4 of block 3 of rural schedules. The information pertaining to the household indebtedness as on the date of survey will be collected in this block. For the purpose of this survey, loans will include borrowing in cash and/or kind (including hire purchases/credit purchase). Borrowings in kind should be evaluated at current retail price prevalent in the local market. An advance payment received for forward delivery of goods should also be regarded as loan. Attempts will be made to record each loan separate­ly irrespective of the type of loan and amount outstanding. Each loan will have a separate serial number against which the information on nature, source, purpose and amount outstanding of the loan will be recorded. If, however, the nature, source and purpose of two or more loans are similar, they may be entered as a single loan.

Block 4: Demographic particulars of household members: This block is meant to record the demographic particulars like sex, age, marital status, educational level, current attendance in educational institution, current registration with employment exchange and receipt of vocational training, etc., of all the household members.

Block 5.1: Usual principal activity particulars of household members: The usual principal activity particulars of each member of the household will be collected in this block. This will include information on industry-occupation of the working members, some particulars of the enterprises in which they are working and conditions of employment for the persons employed as regular wage/salaried employee and casual labour. The particulars of usual activity are collected with reference to a period of 365 days preceding the date of survey.

Block 5.2: Usual subsidiary economic activity particulars of household members: This block will be filled in for those who have reported to have carried out some economic activity in the subsidiary capacity, i.e., for those with code 1 in col. 7 of Block 5.1. Information in this block will be recorded for each and every member of the household reporting subsidiary economic activity (i.e., for those with code 1 in col. 7 of Block 5.1) irrespective of whether in the usual principal activity status the person is employed or not. This will include information on industry-occupation of the working members, the particulars of the enterprises in which they are working in subsidiary status and conditions of employment for those who are employed as regular salaried/wage employee or casual labour. The particulars of usual activity are collected with reference to a period of 365 days preceding the date of survey. The relevant concepts like 'activity status', 'economic activity', 'principal usual activity', 'subsidiary economic activity', etc. are explained in Chapter One. In the situation where a person has been found to have pursued more than one economic activity during the last 365 days in his or her subsidiary capacity, the details of the subsidiary economic activity on which more time has been spent would be considered for recording entry in this block.

Block 5.3: Time disposition of members during the week: This block is meant for recording the time disposition for all the 7 days preceding the date of survey, the current weekly status based on the 7 days time disposition, wage and salary earnings during the week, etc. Time disposition will be recorded for every member of the household listed in block 4. This involves recording of different activities pursued by the members along with the time intensity in quantitative terms for each day of the reference week. The different activities will be identified and recorded in terms of 'status' and 'industry' codes for persons in urban areas and 'status', 'industry' and 'operation' codes for persons in rural areas. The time intensity will be measured in half-day units. Since a person may be engaged in more than one type of activity on a single day, (in which case two such activities will be considered for that day) and different activities may be carried out on different days of the week, more than one line have been provided for each person in this block to record information on different activity particulars which have been carried out by the person in the week in separate lines.

Block 6: Follow-up questions for persons unemployed on all the seven days of the week: This block is meant for collecting information on persons who are found to be unemployed on all the seven days of the week preceding the date of survey, i.e., for those persons with entry 1 in column (23) of block 5.3. Information to be recorded in this block broadly includes their present spell of unemployment and particulars of last employment for those who are unemployed on all the 7 days of the week but were ever employed.

Block 7.1: Follow-up questions on availability of work to persons working in the usual principal or subsidiary status (i.e. those with codes 11-51 in col. 3 of bl. 5.1 or bl. 5.2): In this block an attempt is made to collect information on certain qualitative aspects of employment of those who are categorised as employed either in the principal or subsidiary status.

Block 7.2: Follow-up questions on change of nature of work and/ or establishment to persons working in the usual principal or subsidiary status (i.e., with codes 11-51 in col. 3 of bl. 5.1 or 5.2): This block will be filled in only for the persons categorised as employed either in usual principal or usual subsidiary status. Attempt is made to collect information on certain qualitative aspects of mobility - changes in status, occupation, industry, establishment, etc., for the persons employed in the usual principal status and membership in trade unions, nature of employment, etc. for the employed either in the principal or subsidiary status.

Block 8: Follow-up questions for persons with usual principal activity status code 92 or 93 in column (3) of block 5.1: In order to study the pattern of activities carried out along with domestic chores of the persons classified as engaged in domestic duties, a separate set of special follow-up questions have been designed. These follow-up questions will be asked to all the members of the household classified as engaged in domestic duties according to usual principal status (i.e. those with usual principal status codes 92 or 93 in column 3 of block 5.1) and the relevant answers will be recorded in terms of the specified codes.

Block 9: Household consumer expenditure: Household consumer expenditure is the sum total of monetary values of all goods and services consumed (out of purchase or procured otherwise) by the household on domestic account during a specific reference period. The definition of household consumer expenditure and the procedure for evaluating it will be the same as for Schedule 1.0.
4.9.1 A worksheet has been designed to collect information on household consumer expenditure in Schedule 10. The aim of this worksheet is to arrive at an approximate value of household consumer expenditure, which will serve as proxy for total expenditure that could be obtained through the detailed consumer expenditure Schedule. This approximate value of consumer expenditure would be used for classifying sample households into different levels of living for studying employment characteristics of households in different levels of living. The worksheet contains 36 different components of household consumer expenditure. Considering that an item group may contain different items, an attempt has been made to indicate, in parenthesis, some of the items included in a particular group, so as to facilitate collection of consumer expenditure data for an item group. Two reference periods, viz,. 30 days and 365 days, will be used to record consumption of different groups of items and those are indicated in the headings of columns (3) and (4).