As of 2019, the south Indian state of Kerala had the highest density of doctors of about ** per ten thousand population in the country. However, Jharkhand had the least density of doctors in the country of about **** doctors per ten thousand people in the state.

Abstract

The 52nd round of the National Sample Survey was carried out by the National Sample Survey Office from July 1995 to June 2006 and included the following topics: consumer expenditure and labor participation, utilisation of maternity and child health care services, morbidity and utilisation of medical services, problems of aged persons, and participation in education.

Schedule 25.2 - Participation in Education - is documented here.

Details on educational services received by the household were collected from each sampled household. General demographic information such as age, sex, educational level attained, current enrolment status, etc., were collected from all the household members. But the target group of the schedule was household members age 5-24 years. The questions directed to those who were currently studying included details of the course, level and year of study, type of management of educational institution they were attending, whether the institution was recognised or not, the facilities utilised by them in terms of scholarship, free studentship, etc., and details of private expenditure on education incurred by them. Those currently not attending any educational institution were asked whether they were ever enrolled or not, whether they had completed their education or discontinued midcourse and what were the reasons for dropping out or for non-enrolment.

Geographic coverage

The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union except (i) Leh (Ladakh) and Kargil districts of Jammu & Kashmir (for central sample), (ii) interior villages of Nagaland situated beyond five kilometres of the bus route and (iii) villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year.

Analysis unit

• household members 5-24 years old, irrespective of whether they are currently attending any educational institution or not.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A stratified two-stage design was adopted in this round. The first-stage units were the census villages for the rural areas (panchayat wards in case of Kerala) and the NSSO Urban Frame Survey(UFS) blocks for the urban areas. The second stage units were the households in both the cases.

Sampling Frame for First-Stage Units (FSUs):

The list of census villages of the 1991 census (1981 census list for Jammu & Kashmir) constituted the sampling frame for the rural areas. For Kerala, however, the list of panchayat wards was used as the sampling frame for the selection of first stage units in the rural areas. For Nagaland, the villages located within 5 km of a bus route constituted the sampling frame, whereas for Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the list of 'accessible' villages formed the sampling frame. For the urban areas, the list of NSSO Urban Frame Survey(UFS) blocks has been used as the sampling frame.

Stratification:

For the socio-economic surveys of the NSSO, each state or union territory (u.t.) is divided into one or more agro-climatic regions by grouping contiguous districts which are similar with respect to population density and crop pattern. In Gujarat, however, some districts are subdivided for the purpose of region formation on the basis of location of dry areas and the distribution of tribal population in the state. In all, there are 78 regions covering the entire geographical area of the country.

Allocation of First Stage Units (FSUs):

A sample of 13,000 FSUs (rural & urban combined) was selected as the 'central sample' at the all-India level. The sample size of FSUs (rural & urban combined) for the central sample for a state/u.t. was allocated to its rural and urban areas considering the relative sizes of the rural and urban population with double weightage to the urban areas. The state level rural sample size was allocated to the rural strata in proportion to their rural population figures as per the census. Similarly, urban sample size of the state/u.t. was allocated to the urban strata in proportion to urban population figures as per the census. All the stratum-level allocations were adjusted to multiples of 8 as far as possible (otherwise to multiples of 4) in order to allocate them equally in each sub-sample x sub-round combination (2 sub-samples x 4 sub-rounds).

Selection of First-Stage Units:

The sample FSUs in the rural areas were selected circular systematically with equal probability. In the Union Territory of Daman & Diu, the district Diu consists of only two villages. These two were selected for the survey in both the central and the state sample. Sample blocks in the urban areas were also selected circular systematically with equal probability. Sample FSUs of both the rural and urban areas were selected in the form of two independent sub-samples. The only departure from the general procedure of selection of FSUs was made for the rural areas of Arunachal Pradesh for which the procedure of cluster sampling was followed. The nucleus villages were selected circular systematically with equal probability, in the form of two independent sub-samples. A cluster, generally of 4 to 6 villages, was formed around each nucleus village.

Selection of Hamlet-Groups/ Sub-Blocks (for 'large' FSUs only):

A large FSU was divided into a suitable number of hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks having equal population content. Two hamlet-groups were selected from each large FSU in the rural areas and only one sub-block was selected from each large FSU of the urban areas.

Selection of Households (Second-Stage Units):

In each of the selected FSUs, three different enquiries, "Survey on Health Care", "Survey on Participation in Education" and "Survey on Consumer Expenditure", were conducted on three independent samples of the households. For the present enquiry, i.e. survey on education, a sample of 6 households was selected for the detailed enquiry. However, before selection, the listed households were first grouped into two second-stage strata.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]