The giant leap in the history of India to count its masses had its start in1881, under colonial era, although there were regional censuses conducted since 1824. Since 1881, census is conducted once every ten years. As per the Bhore committee report, in 1948 the census act was enforced and a permanent office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner was created.
Vital Statistics including registration of births and deaths" falls under the concurrent list which is the joint domain of Governments of States and Union Territories of India and the Central Government. The responsibility of conducting the decennial Census rests with the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India under Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. ORGI has 33 subordinate offices known as Directorate of Census Operations in the States/UTs. The main functions of ORGI are to: conduct the decennial population census and tabulate and disseminate the census data under the provisions of the Census Act 1948 and the Census (Amendment) Act, 1993; co-ordinate and unify, at the national level, the work relating to implementation of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 and to compile data of vital statistics on births and deaths; estimate at the national and state level the fertility and mortality measures through a well-represented sample of 1.3 million households under the Sample Registration System (SRS); and provide opinion to the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India on the State/UT Governments' recommendations concerning inclusion in, exclusion from and other modifications in the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes lists in their respective States/UTs. The census of India 2011 was the 15th national census and is the only source of primary data in the village, town and ward level.
The National Population Register (NPR) is a comprehensive identity database to be maintained by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India (RGI). It is created from the specific information collected in the house listing and house census phase of census 2011.
Annual Health surveys:
Annual Health Survey (AHS) has been implemented by the Office of Registrar General, India for a three year period spread over 2010-11 to 2012-13. AHS provides key indicators in district level on Reproductive and Child Health at District level in 8 EAG States and Assam. The AHS States constitute 48 percent of country's Population, 59 percent of Births, 70 percent of Infant Deaths, 75 percent of Under 5 Deaths and 62 percent of Maternal Deaths. The sample population is about 20.1 million and the sample units are 20,694 statistically selected Census Enumeration Blocks in urban areas and Villages or a part thereof in rural areas. The district level sample size is based on IMR. The data collection is based on a hybrid approach in which the field work is outsourced and the supervision is done by the Office of the Registrar General of India. A third party audit was also implemented through an independent arrangement. The scheme is sponsored by MOHFW. The AHS gives details of 161 indicators. The AHS is the largest demographic survey in the world and is two and a half times that of the sample registration system. The fieldwork for baseline survey was carried out during July 2010 to March 2011.
Civil registration system
Civil registration is the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population as provided through decree or regulation in accordance with the legal requirements of a country. Civil registration though carried out primarily for the purpose of establishing the legal documents provided by the law, are also a main source of vital statistics. Complete coverage, accuracy and timeliness of civil registration are essential for quality vital statistics". The civil registration system provides data at District/Taluk/Panchayat level. The first legislation to register vital events was made in 1886. However even before the central act a few states had legislations to register vital events. The need for uniform registration throughout the country was endorsed by the Bhore committee and the second health minister's conference of 1948. Based on these recommendations the office of the registrar general of India was created in 1951. The registration of birth and death act was enacted in 1969. However the registration of vital events has a major setback in India in terms of coverage. The level of registration in 2008, across the country was 76.4 and 66.4 in case of birth and death respectively and varies between states.
Sample registration system:
In the absence of a civil registration system yielding complete coverage, the vital statistics needed for the country is provided by sample registration system and sample surveys. The sample registration system was initiated in India in pilot basis in 1964-65 and in full scale from 1969-70. The SRS provides estimates of birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate at natural division level for rural areas and state level for 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 on total fertility, infant and child mortality at higher geographic levels. The SRS is a dual registration system with continuous enumeration of births and deaths in a sample of villages/urban blocks by a resident part time enumerator, and an independent six monthly retrospective survey by a full time supervisor. The data are then matched. Those unmatched and partially matched are re-verified in the field. The sample design used is unistage stratified simple random sampling without replacement except in villages of >2000 population in rural areas, where two stage stratification is done. The infant mortality is the decisive factor the calculation of sample size. The sample frame is revised once every ten years and the last revision was in 2004. In 2004, 7597 sampling units were included.
Evaluation of SRS:
Survey of deaths
The survey of causes of death undertaken in selected PHC's was merged with SRS in 1999 with the objective of building up the statistics of most probable cause of death by verbal autopsy. The sample survey of
National Sample Surveys
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is the nodal agency for all statistical activities at Allâ€India level and at the state level the Directorates of Economics and Statistics carry out the operation. The Statistics Wing of MOSPI called National Statistical Organisation (NSO) consists of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the Computer Centre and Coordination & Publication Division. The CSO is responsible for coordination of statistical activities in the country and for evolving and maintaining statistical standards. Its activities include compilation of National Accounts; conduct of Annual Survey of Industries and Economic Censuses, compilation of Index of Industrial Production, as well as Consumer Price Indices. It also deals with various social statistics, training, international cooperation, Industrial Classification etc.
The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) carries out socioâ€economic surveys, undertakes field work for the Annual Survey of Industries and followâ€up surveys of Economic census, sample checks on area enumeration and crop estimation surveys and prepares the urban frames useful in drawing of urban samples, besides collection of price data from rural and urban sectors. The major activities of the NSSO pertain to Survey Design, Field Operations, Processing of data collected and releasing of the results based on surveys.
The basic design followed in NSS is stratified two-stage (for smaller villages / urban blocks) or three-stage (for larger villages/blocks involving hamlet group/sub-block formation). The primary stage unit (PSU) is Village (in rural areas) or Urban Frame Survey Block (in urban areas), but the ultimate stage unit (USU) is invariably household/enterprise for household/enterprise surveys. However most of the NSS surveys being multi-subject integrated ones, detail design varies from survey to survey. The current survey 68th Round of NSS (July 2011-June 2012) covers the subjects: Household Consumer Expenditure, Employment & Unemployment and Use of Indian System of Medicines and Homoeopathy.
NFHS & DLHS
In the Department of Health and Family Welfare, the Statistics Division is headed by
Additional Director General (Statistics), an HAG level officer of the Indian Statistical Service.
The Division is responsible for monitoring and evaluation of various Health and Family Welfare programmes under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a flagship programme of the Government. The Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy of the Ministry increasingly focuses on achieving output / outcome results. The main statistical activities of the Statistical Division are: Routine Monitoring of the Programmes, Quality Assessment Monitoring, and Validation of data through Triangulation Methodology, Evaluation Surveys, Concurrent Evaluation of NRHM, and monitoring Population Research Centre. The Statistics Division also organizes large scale sample surveys like the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), Districts Level Household
Surveys (DLHS), Facility Surveys to assess and evaluate the outcome/impact of the programmes /interventions from time to time. These surveys provide data at district / state level covering the areas like Family Planning, Immunization, Maternal & Child Health, Infrastructure facilities available at various levels including trained / skilled manpower (medical and paramedical) in the country. The Survey data also gives disaggregated information by gender, social groups, income quintiles etc. The Statistics Division is also looking after the work of two autonomous institutions, viz., International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, and National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), New Delhi.
Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) is the National Nodal Institution for Health
Intelligence in the Country under Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health &
Family Welfare. The major statistical activities of CBHI are to Maintain and Disseminate the National health Profile on Demography (population and vital statistics), Socio-Economic (education, social indicators, economic indicators, employment, housing and amenities, drinking water and sanitation), Health Status (morbidity and mortality, reproductive and child health, disabilities ) and Health and Infrastructure including AYUSH (education infrastructure, health care service infrastructure).
The National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD) was established on July 30,1963, by expanding and reorganizing the activities of the Malaria Institute of India (MII), which remained in existence under different names since its inception in 1909. The Statistical Monitoring and Evaluation Cell(SM&C) of the Institute is responsible for statistical activities. The major activities of the Cell are: to assist in collection, presentation, analysis and feedback of the data received in IDSP, to collect, compile, analyse and disseminate information of diseases and prepare various analytical reports for monitoring purposes at the time of disease outbreaks, to provide Statistical Support to the Faculty, Ph.D. Scholars and Staff of NICD; Lecture on Statistics and Computer related topics for various training programmes; to prepare weekly reports on Cholera cases in Delhi and to provide Administrative Support for the conduct short term courses.
NACO - CIMS, BSS,HIV sentinel surveillance
