India - Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households: NSS 70th Round, Schedule 33, January - December 2013 (Visit 1)

3. Sample Design

3.1 Outline of sample design: A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for the 70th round survey. The first stage units (FSU) are the census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. The ultimate stage units (USU) are households in both the sectors. In case of large FSUs, one intermediate stage of sampling is the selection of two hamlet-groups (hgs)/ sub-blocks (sbs) from each rural/ urban FSU.

3.2 Sampling Frame for First Stage Units: For the rural sector, the list of 2001 census villages updated by excluding the villages urbanised and including the towns de-urbanised after 2001 census (henceforth the term 'village' would mean Panchayat wards for Kerala) constitutes the sampling frame. For the urban sector, the latest updated list of UFS blocks (2007-12) is considered as the sampling frame.


3.3 Stratification:

(a) Stratum has been formed at district level. Within each district of a State/ UT, generally speaking, two basic strata have been formed: i) rural stratum comprising of all rural areas of the district and (ii) urban stratum comprising all the urban areas of the district. However, within the urban areas of a district, if there were one or more towns with population 10 lakhs or more as per population census 2011 in a district, each of them formed a separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the district was considered as another basic stratum.

(b) However, a special stratum in the rural sector only was formed at State/UT level before district- strata were formed in case of each of the following 20 States/UTs: Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. This stratum will comprise all the villages of the State with population less than 50 as per census 2001.

(c) In case of rural sectors of Nagaland one special stratum has been formed within the State consisting of all the interior and inaccessible villages. Similarly, for Andaman & Nicobar Islands, one more special stratum has been formed within the UT consisting of all inaccessible villages. Thus for Andaman & Nicobar Islands, two special strata have been formed at the UT level:

(i) special stratum 1 comprising all the interior and inaccessible villages
(ii) special stratum 2 containing all the villages, other than those in special stratum 1, having population less than 50 as per census 2001.


3.4 Sub-stratification:

Rural sector: Different sub-stratifications are done for 'hilly' States and other States. Ten (10) States are considered as hilly States. They are: Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

(a) sub-stratification for hilly States: If 'r' be the sample size allocated for a rural stratum, the number of sub-strata formed was 'r/2'. The villages within a district as per frame have been first arranged in ascending order of population. Then sub-strata 1 to 'r/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum comprised a group of villages of the arranged frame and have more or less equal population.

(b) sub-stratification for other States (non-hilly States except Kerala): The villages within a district as per frame were first arranged in ascending order of proportion of irrigated area in the cultivated area of the village. Then sub-strata 1 to 'r/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum comprised a group of villages of the arranged frame and have more or less equal cultivated area. The information on irrigated area and cultivated area was obtained from the village directory of census 2001.

(c) sub-stratification for Kerala: Although Kerala is a non-hilly State but because of non-availability of information on irrigation at FSU (Panchayat Ward) level, sub-stratification by proportion of irrigated area was not possible. Hence the procedure for sub-stratification was same as that of hilly States in case of Kerala.

Urban sector: There was no sub-stratification for the strata of million plus cities. For other strata, each district was divided into 2 sub-strata as follows:

sub-stratum 1: all towns of the district with population less than 50000 as per census 2011
sub-stratum 2: remaining non-million plus towns of the district

3.5 Total sample size (FSUs): 8042 FSUs have been allocated for the central sample at all-India level. For the state sample, there are 8998 FSUs allocated for all-India. State wise allocation of sample FSUs is given in Table 1.

3.6 Allocation of total sample to States and UTs: The total number of sample FSUs have been allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to population as per census 2011 subject to a minimum sample allocation to each State/ UT. While doing so, the resource availability in terms of number of field investigators as well as comparability with previous round of survey on the same subjects has been kept in view.

3.7 Allocation of State/ UT level sample to rural and urban sectors: State/ UT level sample size has been allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as per census 2011 with double weightage to urban sector subject to the restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. should not exceed the rural sample size. A minimum of 16 FSUs (minimum 8 each for rural and urban sector separately) is allocated to each state/ UT.

3.8 Allocation to strata: Within each sector of a State/ UT, the respective sample size has been allocated to the different strata in proportion to the population as per census 2011. Allocations at stratum level are adjusted to multiples of 2 with a minimum sample size of 2.

For special stratum formed in the rural areas of 20 States/UTs, as discussed in para 3.3 (b), 2 FSUs were allocated to each.

For special stratum 1 in the rural areas of Nagaland and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, 4 and 2 FSUs were allocated respectively.

3.9 Allocation to sub-strata:

3.9.1 Rural: Allocation is 2 for each sub-stratum in rural.

3.9.2 Urban: Stratum allocations have been distributed among the two sub-strata in proportion to the number of FSUs in the sub-strata. Minimum allocation for each sub-stratum is 2.

3.10 Selection of FSUs:

For the rural sector, from each stratum x sub-stratum, required number of sample villages has been selected by Simple Random Sampling Without Replacement (SRSWOR).

For the urban sector, FSUs have been selected by using Simple Random Sampling Without Replacement (SRSWOR) from each stratum x sub-stratum.

Both rural and urban samples were drawn in the form of two independent sub-samples and equal number of samples has been allocated among the two sub rounds.


3.11 Selection of hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks - important steps

3.11.1 Criterion for hamlet-group/ sub-block formation: After identification of the boundaries of the FSU, it is first determined whether listing is to be done in the whole sample FSU or not. In case the approximate present population of the selected FSU is found to be 1200 or more, it is divided into a suitable number (say, D) of 'hamlet-groups' in the rural sector and 'sub-blocks' in the urban sector by more or less equalising the population as stated below.


approximate present population of the sample FSU no. of hg's/sb's to be formed

less than 1200 (no hamlet-groups/sub-blocks) 1
1200 to 1799 3
1800 to 2399 4
2400 to 2999 5
3000 to 3599 6
…………..and so on .



For rural areas of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand (except four districts Dehradun, Nainital, Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar), Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kistwar, Ramgarh, Leh (Ladakh), Kargil districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Idukki district of Kerala, the number of hamlet-groups are formed as follows:


approximate present population of the sample village no. of hg's to be formed

less than 600 (no hamlet-groups) 1
600 to 899 3
900 to 1199 4
1200 to 1499 5
1500 to 1799 6
.………..and so on .


3.11.2 Formation and selection of hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks: In case hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks are to be formed in the sample FSU, the same is done by more or less equalizing population. While doing so, it is ensured that the hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks formed are clearly identifiable in terms of physical landmarks.

Two hamlet-groups (hg)/ sub-blocks (sb) are selected from a large FSU wherever hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks have been formed in the following manner - one hg/ sb with maximum percentage share of population is always selected and termed as hg/ sb 1; one more hg/ sb is selected from the remaining hg's/ sb's by simple random sampling (SRS) and termed as hg/ sb 2. Listing and selection of the households is done independently in the two selected hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks.

3.12 Formation of second stage strata and allocation of households

3.12.3 Schedule 18.2: Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS):

Three SSS are formed both in rural and urban sector: (i) households indebted either to institutional agencies only or to both institutional and non-institutional agencies, (ii) households indebted to non-institutional agencies only and (iii) households without any indebtedness.

3.12.4 Allocation and selection of sample households: The total number of households to be surveyed in an FSU is given below for each schedule type:

There was no deviation from the original sampling design.