National Sample Survey 2001-2002 (57th round) - Schedule 2.345 - Unorganised Services Excluding Trade & Finance

The NSSO, since its inception in 1950, has played a major role in providing the socio-economic data needed- from all spheres of life-to formulate of a vibrant plan for social and economic development. In this endeavour, NSS has collected, inter-alia, a series of data on non-agricultural enterprises, particularly those belonging to the unorganised sector. In this series, information on unorganised service sector enterprises have been collected in the 57th round of NSSo, conducted during 2001-02.

In the early periods, the household-based non-agricultural activities, irrespective of their scale of operations, were covered in the surveys of NSSO. Subsequently, the need for segmentation of non-agriculture sector into organised and non-organised, and also into sectors of economic activity was felt necessary for the collection of meaningful data. The enterprises registered under Factories Act, 1948 (known as organised sector) and engaged in manufacturing activity, were then separately covered and surveyed by the Central Statistical Organisation. The non-household based units in the unorganised sector thus remained out side the coverage, primarily due to nonavailability of a better frame and background information needed for formulating an efficient sampling design.

In order to meet the requirements of surveys on enterprises and others, a countrywide Economic Census (EC), the first of its kind, was undertaken in 1977 under the aegis of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO). Following this census, small establishments and enterprises not employing any hired worker on a fairly regular basis (known as Own Account Enterprises (OAEs)) engaged in manufacturing and repairing activities were surveyed in 33rd round of NSS during 1978-79.

Subsequently, a series of Economic Censuses have been conducted by extending the scope of earlier Censuses during 1980 and 1990 followed by the enterprise surveys of NSSO during 1984–1985 (NSS 40th round), 1989–1990 (NSS 45th round), and 1994-1995 (NSS 51st round). The OAEs and Non-Directory Establishments (NDEs) were covered in NSS 40th and 45th round surveys, whereas the Directory Establishments (DEs) were surveyed separately by the CSO. However, in the 51st round, all the OAEs, NDEs and DEs engaged in manufacturing and repairing activities were covered by the NSS.

The latest EC, the fourth in the series, was conducted by the CSO during 1998. As a follow-up survey of this EC, a survey on unorganised manufacturing was conducted during the 56th round (July 2000-June 2001). In this survey, information from the 1998 EC was used for stratification and the EC list of villages and blocks was used as frame for selection of first stage units as far as possible. It may be worth mentioning that a survey on unincorporated proprietary and partnership enterprises, known as informal sector, was carried out along with the uinquennial surveys on ‘Consumer Expenditure’ and ‘Employment & Unemployment’ in NSS 55th round (July 1999-June 2000). The Population Census villages and UFS blocks were used as sampling frame in that round. The current survey, NSS 57th round, is on the unorganised service sector enterprises excluding trading and financial enterprises. The survey was carried out during July 2001 - June 2002 and the information was collected from the selected enterprises more or less on the lines of NSS 55th round. In this survey, the information of EC-`98 has been used for selection of units.