Survey ID Number
NPL_2008_SSME_v01_M
Title
Survey of Small Manufacturing Establishments 2008-2009
Data Collection Notes
Historical Experience
In the time of earlier manufacturing censuses and surveys, data collection was really a difficult task to undertake. The respondents were not properly educated on the importance of information culture. They used to take survey answering as an unnecessary burden and the poor enumerators as unwanted guests. There were several call backs even from leading industrialists who were regarded as pioneers. In those days, the transport and communication problem was quite acute. Once the survey people were not in their respective duty areas, it was very difficult to maintain contact with them from the center. It would take days and months for letters to go from one part to another. So, one can imagine how difficult it was to monitor field activities like recruitment, training, data collection, field edit, and document flow etc. In addition to this, since most of the survey personnel - survey officers, supervisors and enumerators were on temporary basis, they were not so loyal to their assignments. So, in effect, the quality of data was very miserable. It is a known fact that industrialists do hesitate to supply correct information for many reasons, chiefly because they think their figures might be supplied to revenue offices and create unnecessary troubles for them in the future.
Secondly, since they do not get any direct benefit from the survey, they do not find it so meaningful to cooperate with government efforts. In the context of the Nepalese experience, among the most non-cooperative class are the large and well organized establishments. They have created unnecessary problems to survey people at all times. They are the ones that delay or send back the poor enumerators with empty hand, even though they have good record keeping systems. Sometimes, they even challenge the authority of CBS because they have influential connections in the economic and political area. Even when they supply data after persistent efforts, sometimes the data are from their second set of books or wrong figures; the enumerators have to do a lot of probing or other checks in order to obtain the information they want.
But, on the other hand, the small scale establishments do not generally employ such time consuming and non-cooperative tactics, the only problem with them is to do more probing because they generally do not maintain a full set of accounting books. These days, the situation has changed to some extent. Due to having more census experience and better public education by the different media and the involvement of trade and industry organization in the census/survey committee, the field operation have also become somewhat easier because of better socio-economic infrastructures. So, we can expect a better quality of data in comparison to earlier days.
Pilot Survey of SSME 2008-2009
The pilot survey of the SSME 2008-2009 had been conducted jointly with the pilot survey of CME 2006-2007 in three districts - Rasuwa, Jhapa and Surkhet - in 2005-2006.
Data Collection Process in SSME 2008-2009
The survey was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, the listing work was carried out during 2008-2009. To carry it out, 96 personnel of 33 Branch Statistics Offices were trained at three places, viz. 31 in Itahari of Sunsari district, 33 in Tandi of Chitwan district and 32 in Nepalganj of Banke district in 2008 September. Then, these trained personnel were sent to take interview at the selected sample establishments through branch offices. The listing was completed in 9 months from October 2008 to July 2009. Total expense of the listing was more than 4.3 million Nepalese rupees. On the basis of the listing, a master frame of establishments was prepared. The frame indicated that there were altogether 32326 establishments under operation. For preparing the frame, all operating establishments were enumerated throughout the country by visiting each locality which could have such manufacturing activities. The small manufacturing industries are mainly found in the rural areas in Nepal. Majority of the industries were rice milling, tailoring, furniture making and jewellery designing.
In the second phase, the detailed survey was undertaken on a sample basis. To conduct the field work, The "Questionnaire" and "Instruction Manual for Enumerators" in Nepali language were used to collect necessary information. Interview was conducted in Nepali language. Monetary figures were recorded in thousand Nepali rupees. A separate control form was administrated for each establishment. Seven thousands pieces of questionnaire and 4 hundreds pieces of instruction manuals had been printed at center. Nearly 100 enumerators - BSO's staffs - were trained during November- December 2009. Training of supervisors, who were also BSOs' heads, were provided orientation about SSME in September 2009 during their annual meeting at the center. Moreover, the enumerators' training was held in Itahari of Sunsari district, Simara of Bara district and Nepalgunj. More than 5.8 million NRs budget was estimated for the field work. Actually, the district level field work was managed by the corresponding BSO head and the central office had provided technical documents and T.A.D.A. budget. This budget was nearly 3.5 million which had sent to BSOs. The survey enumeration work was completed in six months from January to June 2010.
Reference period
Data for the small manufacturing establishments referring to the fiscal year 2008-2009, beginning from 16th July 2008 to 15th July 2009 (2065 Shrawan - 2066 Ashad) were collected. For point data like employment, the reference date was considered as 15th February (1st Magh 2065).