Sources of demographic data

Mohd TariqueP.G Scholar

Deptt. of TSTNIUM ,B’lore

SOURCES OF DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Introduction The term “Demography” is the statistical and

mathematical study of the size, composition, and spatial distribution of human population, and of changes over time in these aspects through the operation of five processes of fertility, mortality, marriage, migration and social mobility. Usually the demographic data are drawn from various sources such as national censuses, civil registration system as well as the sample surveys

The important sources of vital statistics in India are:1. Population Census2. Civil Registration System3. Demographic Sample Surveys such as those

conducted by the National Sample Surveys Organization(NSSO)

4. Sample Registration System (SRS)5. Health Surveys, such as National Family Health

Surveys, (NFHS) 6. District Level Household Surveys (DLHS‐RCH )

conducted for assessing progress under the Reproductive and Child Health Programme..

(A ) Census It is compiling, evaluating, analysing and publishing demographic, economic and social data pertaining, at a specific time, to all persons in a country or in a well-delimited part of a country.” In other words, the enumeration of the entire population of a country or a region at a particular time is known as census.

How a National Census is taken:

Census taking is a very complex and extensive task and is, therefore, usually conducted by governments. In many countries, provision for census taking is made by law. While such a law makes the co-operation of each citizen mandatory, it also ensure that confidential nature of census information provided by individuals shall be preserved

In India, Census taking has been the responsibility of the Government from the very beginning. Even today, population census is a Union subject, with the Ministry of Home Affairs in charge. A senior officer of the Indian Administrative Service, with experience in the conduct of census operations, is generally appointed as Census Commissioner. There are thousands of enumerators, with a hierarchy of officers at various levels in between. For each State and Union Territory, an officer, designated as the Director of Census Operations, is appointed.

Taking into consideration the magnitude of the task, the entire administrative machinery of the State and local self-government is placed at the disposal of the Director of Census Operations. In rural areas, primary school teachers, village “patvaris” and other staff in local offices are generally appointed as census enumerators. The enumerator is the basic and the most important link in census operations. He has to visit every household within the area assigned to him and collect the required information.

Sr. No. State Population Growth Rate Area Sq.km Density/Sq.km Sex Ratio Literacy

- India 1,210,193,422 17.64 3287240 382 940 74.04

1 Uttar Pradesh 199,581,477 20.09 240928 828 908 69.72

2 Maharashtra 112,372,972 15.99 307713 365 946 82.91

3 Bihar 103,804,637 25.07 94163 1102 916 63.82

4 West Bengal 91,347,736 13.93 88752 1029 947 77.08

5 Andhra Pradesh

84,665,533 11.10 275045 308 992 67.66

6 Madhya Pradesh

72,597,565 20.30 308245 236 930 70.63

7 Tamil Nadu 72,138,958 15.60 130058 555 995 80.33

8 Rajasthan 68,621,012 21.44 342239 201 926 67.06

9 Karnataka 61,130,704 15.67 191791 319 968 75.60

10 Gujarat 60,383,628 19.17 196024 308 918 79.31

11 Orissa 41,947,358 13.97 155707 269 978 73.45

12 Kerala 33,387,677 4.86 38863 859 1084 93.91

13 Jharkhand 32,966,238 22.34 79714 414 947 67.63

14 Assam 31,169,272 16.93 78438 397 954 73.18

15 Punjab 27,704,236 13.73 50362 550 893 76.68

16 Chhattisgarh

25,540,196 22.59 135191 189 991 71.04

17 Haryana 25,353,081 19.90 44212 573 877 76.64

18 Delhi 16,753,235 20.96 1483 11297 866 86.34

19 Jammu and Kashmir

12,548,926 23.71 222236 56 883 68.74

20 Uttarakhand

10,116,752 19.17 53483 189 963 79.63

21 Himachal Pradesh

6,856,509 12.81 55673 123 974 83.78

22 Tripura 3,671,032 14.75 10486 350 961 87.75

23 Meghalaya 2,964,007 27.82 22429 132 986 75.48

24 Manipur 2,721,756 18.65 22327 122 987 79.85

25 Nagaland 1,980,602 -0.47 16579 119 931 80.11

26 Goa 1,457,723 8.17 3702 394 968 87.40

27 Arunachal Pradesh

1,382,611 25.92 83743 17 920 66.95

28 Puducherry

1,244,464 27.72 479 2598 1038 86.55

29 Mizoram 1,091,014 22.78 21081 52 975 91.58

30 Chandigarh

1,054,686 17.10 114 9252 818 86.43

31 Sikkim 607,688 12.36 7096 86 889 82.20

32 Andaman and Nicobar Islands

379,944 6.68 8249 46 878 86.27

33 Dadra and Nagar Haveli

342,853 55.50 491 698 775 77.65

34 Daman and Diu

242,911 53.54 112 2169 618 87.07

35 Lakshadweep

64,429 6.23 32 2013 946 92.28

(B) Civil Registration System

According to the United Nations, civil registration is defined as the continuous permanent and compulsory recording of the occurrence of vital events, like, live births, deaths, foetal deaths, marriages, divorces as well as annulments, judicial separation, adoptions, legitimations and recognitions. Civil registration is performed under a law, decree or regulation so as to provide a legal basis to the records and certificates made from the system, which has got several civil uses in the personal life of individual citizens.

Moreover, the information collected through the registration

process provides very useful and important vital statistics

also on a continuous basis at the national level starting from

the smallest administrative unit. In fact, obtaining detailed

vital statistics on a regular basis is one of the major

functions of the Civil Registration System (CRS) in several

countries of the world. Vital records obtained under CRS

have got administrative uses in designing and implementing

public health programmes and carrying out social,

demographic and historical research. For an individual, the

birth registration records provide legal proof of identity and

civil status, age, nationality, dependency status etc., on

which depend a wide variety of rights.

Civil Registration System in India

CRS gives data not only at the national level but also at the district and sub-divisional levels which are the basic units for the planning and implementation of health and family welfare services as well as several developmental programmes. At the local level, births and deaths are recorded by the Registrar or Sub-Registrar of specific area and the basic information is given to him by appointed informants (village level health workers/ICDS workers etc).

In case of household events, head of the household is

responsible for reporting the event where as the Medical

officer in-charge collects information on events taking

place in hospitals, nursing homes, maternity homes etc.

This information are compiled and provided in a

standard format such as Form 2 for live births, Form 3

for stillbirths and Form 4 for deaths. This information is

reported to the district Registrar or Addl. District

Registrar who is the Medical Health Officer. In case of

Municipalities (urban wards) with a population of 30,000

and more, every Registrar is expected to send monthly

statement to the Chief Registrar.

Uses of civil registration Civil registration has a dual purpose − legal on

the one hand, and statistical, demographic and epidemiological on the other. In the first purpose, the records generated have importance as legal records documenting the facts surrounding each registered vital event. In that sense, each vital record has an intrinsic importance of its own.

For the second purpose , the records may be aggregated to form a body of vital statistics which, collectively, convey important information about the persons described in the statistics in summary form. Those two purposes reinforce each other in a number of ways, but it is important to maintain their distinctiveness in discussing the uses and operation of civil registration.

Uses of civil registration records for administrative purposes

Live birth records are the basis for many public health programmes for post‐natal care of mother and child, and may be used, when needed, for programmes of vaccination and immunization, premature‐baby care, assistance to disabled persons. Death records are used to provide legal permission for burial or other disposal of deceased individuals. They can also provide information of epidemiological importance, and indicate the need for preventive control measures. Death records are also necessary to clear a number of administrative files, such as disease‐case registers, population registers, social security files, military service files, electoral rolls, identity files and tax registers

Uses of civil registration records for Individuals

For the individual, the birth registration records provide legal proof of identity and civil status, age, nationality, dependency status etc., on which depend a wide variety of rights. The birth registration record may be required for establishing,

(i) Identity and family relationships for settling inheritance or insurance claims and arranging transfer of property

(ii) Proof of age for admission in schools, entry into services and professions, obtaining a driving license, exercising voting rights, entering into legal contracts, inheritance claims, marriage etc.

(iii) Nationality or citizenship by birth, to obtain passport for foreign travel, qualify for voting privileges, own property

(C) Sample Surveys There are three systems which provide data on

vital rates at the national level. These are National Sample Survey, Sample Registration System and in recent years, National Family Health Surveys. These surveys provide different kinds of data, but all of them provide certain fertility and mortality indicators. In view of their importance in the demographic data system of India at different points of time, these are discussed below.

1. National Sample Survey

Data on fertility and mortality from the census are not very reliable and they are also available only once in ten years. In the absence of reliable data from the civil registration system (CRS), the need for reliable vital statistics at national and state levels is being met through sample surveys launched from time to time. At the instance of the then Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, a large scale sample survey agency known as National Sample Survey (NSS) came into existence in 1950 on the recommendations of the National Income Committee chaired by Late Professor P. C. Mahalanobis.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the National Sample Survey

attempted to provide reliable estimates of birth and

death rates through its regular rounds. However, the

release of 1961 census data indicated that the birth

rates and death rates and consequently, the growth

rates were often not estimated correctly. Many

analysts, at that point of time, felt that the one time

retrospective recall surveys such as National Sample

survey may not be able to estimate the vital rates

correctly. This resulted in a search for alternative

mechanism estimate vital rates.

Objective of NSS NSS was started with the objective of filling up the gaps in

essential statistics by collecting comprehensive data through sample surveys. A wide variety of subjects have been covered by the NSS. Broadly, these may be classified as socio economic (including demographic), agricultural survey and industrial enquiries. NSS is a nation‐wide, large scale, continuing, integrated multi subject survey conducted in the form of rounds of one year duration, by a permanent ,whole time survey staff using the methods of personal interview and direct physical observation for providing data on various types of social, economic and agricultural characteristics, with provisions (a) for assessing the precision of survey results, (b) providing periodic progressive estimates and (c) for other agencies such as states to participate in its work on a matching basis

2.Sample Registration System (SRS)

The Government of India, in the late 1960s, initiated the Sample Registration System that is based on a Dual Recording System. In the Sample Registration System, there is a continuous enumeration of births and deaths in a sample of villages/urban blocks by a resident part‐time enumerator and then, an independent six monthly retrospective survey by a full time supervisor. The data obtained through these two sources are matched. The unmatched and partially matched events are re‐verified in the field to get the correct number of events. At present, the Sample Registration System (SRS) provides reliable annual data on fertility and mortality at the state and national levels for rural and urban areas separately. In this survey, the sample units, villages in rural areas and urban blocks in urban areas are replaced once in ten years.

Objective of SRS The main objective of SRS is to provide reliable

estimates of birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate at the natural division level for the rural areas and at the state level for the urban areas. Natural divisions are National Sample Survey (NSS) classified group of contiguous administrative districts with distinct geographical and other natural characteristics. It also provides data for other measures of fertility and mortality including total fertility, infant and child mortality rate at higher geographical levels.

In order to facilitate effective tracking of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on under‐five mortality, the estimates of Under‐5 mortality rate for India and bigger states separately for rural & urban and also by sex have been made a regular feature of SRS ‐ Annual Statistical Report starting from the year 2008.Similarly, the estimates of maternal mortality generated under the domain of SRS starting from 1997 provides important inputs for tracking of MDGs on maternal mortality.

Structure of the Sample Registration SystemThe main components of SRS are:(i) Base‐line survey of the sample units to obtain

demographic details of the usual resident population of the sample areas

(ii) Continuous (longitudinal) enumeration of vital events pertaining to usual resident population by the enumerator

(iii) Independent retrospective half‐yearly surveys for recording births and deaths which occurred during the half‐year under reference and up‐dating the House‐list, Household 27 schedule and the list of women in the reproductive age group along with their pregnancy status by the Supervisor

(iv) Matching of events recorded during continuous enumeration and those listed in course of half‐ yearly survey;

(v) Field verification of unmatched and partially matched events; and

(vi) Filling of Verbal Autopsy Forms for finalized deaths.

3. Health Surveys In the past about a decade or so, a few important

sources for demographic data have emerged. These are the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) and the District Level Household Surveys (DLHS) conducted for the evaluation of reproductive and child Health programmes. Three rounds of NFHS surveys have since been completed. These provide estimates inter‐alia of fertility, child mortality and a number of health parameters relating to infants and children at state level.

They also provide information on the availability of health and family planning services to pregnant mothers and other women in reproductive ages. The DLHS provide information at the district level on a number of indicators relating to child health, reproductive health problems and the quality of services available to them. Three rounds of DLHS surveys have been conducted so far.

4. NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEYS

India’s first National Family Health Survey 1(NFHS‐1) was conducted in 1992–93. The primary objective of survey was to provide national and state level data on fertility, nuptiality, family size preferences, knowledge and practice of family planning, the potential demand for family planning services, the level of unwanted fertility , utilization of ante natal care services breast feeding and food supplementation practices, child nutrition and health immunization and infant and child mortality.

Financial assistance for NFHS was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (US AID).The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India, subsequently designated the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as the nodal agency to conduct the survey.

5.Reproductive and Child Health Survey under DLHS-RCH

The Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) under District Level Household Survey (DLHS) is being implemented by the Government of India to provide quality services at the grass-root level and to estimate the utilization of these services by the community. In the survey a shift was made from the method-mix target based activities to the client centred, demand driven quality services. This approach was adopted in order to change the attitude of the service providers at the grass-root level and to increase the outreach services

It took into consideration not only to generate district level data on utilization of services but also the people’s perception about the quality of services. In view of the above RCH under took the Rapid Household Survey and the Facility Survey in all the districts of the country in two phases. Phase-I started in the year 1998-99 and Phase-II in 2002-04. IIPS was chosen as a Nodal Agency for collecting data and preparation of reports by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In Phase-I approximately 50 percent of the districts from each state and union territory were covered and the remaining districts were taken-up in the second phase.

The survey focuses on coverage of antenatal care, immunization services, extent of safe deliveries, contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning, awareness about RTI/STI and HIV/AIDS and utilization of government health services. Apart from this, information on birth history from all ever-married women is also collected during the survey that can provide vital rates at the district level. Currently the third round of DLHS- RCH data collection is under progress in all the states of India.

Summary and Conclusions

The Indian census has been a goldmine for

the population data including vital events

where one can get the estimates even below

district level. However, it has the limitation

that the fertility rates are not reliably

improved over time though the mortality

rates estimated indirectly comes out

reasonable good, at least for the larger state.

Despite of tremendous efforts to improve the quality of data in different population census, it suffers from three major limitations hampering extensive use of census data in micro-level planning and programme implementation. In fact, the nature and pattern of coverage and contents errors and changing definitions of certain tangible indicators over different census restrict extensive use of these data in tracking the progress in millennium development goals set for India.