Improve quality of data to enhance credibility: Vasan

New Delhi, Sep 25 (UNI) Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation G K Vasan today said that efforts should be intensified for improvement of quality of data so as to enhance its usefulness and credibility.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar on the results of 62nd round of NSS, Mr Vasan said regular research, seminars and public debate should be undertaken for this purpose.

With planning being decentralised at district level, demands for sub-State level information are on the rise.

The State Governments as well as local governments are more interested in such estimates for planning at district level.

He said the Department of Statistics needs to explore possibility of pooling data of Central sample and State sample so as to provide reliable estimates at local level.

He said information regarding participation in public works collected first time for persons in the age group of 15 years and above in rural areas have revealed that: -- According to the usual status, about 56 per cent of rural males and 31 per cent or rural females belonged to the labour force; --The corresponding proportions in the urban areas were 57 per cent and 15 per cent respectively; --Unemployment rate in the rural areas was around 2 per cent (for male nearly 3 per cent and for female nearly 2 per cent); --In urban areas the unemployment rate was 5 per cent (for male nearly 5 per cent and for female nearly 8 per cent); --In rural India, more than half of the usually employed were self-employed -- 57 per cent among males and nearly 62 per cent among female; --The corresponding figures in urban India were 42 for male and 44 for female; -- The percentage of regular wage and salaried employees was relatively lower among females as compared to males in both rural and urban India; The proportion of female casual labourers was about one percentage point higher than that of male casual labourers in both rural and urban areas.

The rate of under-employment was found higher in rural than urban, and higher for female than for male under the three approximations.

The main objective of the survey on 'Household Consumer Expenditure in India' was to collect the data on commodity-specific information on 148 items of food, 13 items of fuel, 28 items of clothing, bedding and footwear, 18 items of educational and medical expenses, 52 items of durable goods, and about 85 other items: In 2005-06, nearly 19 per cent of the Indian rural population belonged to households with monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) less than Rs.365 that is, spending less than Rs.12 per person per day on consumption, at 2005-06 prices.

In urban India, 22 per cent of the population belonged to households with monthly per capita expenditure less than Rs 580 (about Rs 19 per person per day).

Out of every rupee spent in 2005-06, 53 paise and 40 paise was spent on food respectively by rural and urban households.

The main objective of the survey on 'Unorganized Manufacturing Enterprises' was to collect the information on estimated number of enterprises and number of workers. The survey provides information on operational characteristics of the enterprises like location of enterprise, maintenance of accounts, number of working hours and nature of operation. at all India level for different industry groups and at the level of States and Union Territories for all the industry groups together.

Major findings of the survey are: -- An estimated 17.07 million unorganised manufacturing enterprises were in operation in India during 2005-06.

-- Of the total enterprises estimated, 71 per cent were in rural India and 29 per cent in urban India.

-- Own Account, Manufacturing Enterprises (OAME) constituted 86 per cent of all enterprises and the remaining 14 per cent were establishments.

-- About 36.44 million persons were estimated to be working in unorganized manufacturing enterprises during 2005-06.

-- The number of workers per enterprise was about 2.13.

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