The Hindu : Front Page : Methodology of the survey

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Sunday, Aug 13, 2006

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Methodology of the survey

The State of the Nation Survey was conducted in 19 major States (excluding those with less than five Lok Sabha seats) in the first week of August 2006.

A sample of 208 Lok Sabha constituencies and 890 polling booths there was drawn by circular random sampling (probability proportionate to size). The latest electoral rolls of these booths were used to randomly draw 26,000 names of persons, who were approached. The survey was completed in 883 locations.

Rains, flooding and other contingencies led to the dropping of seven booths and the substitution of two constituencies. In all, 14,680 respondents were interviewed between August 1 and 6. The interviews, with a structured questionnaire in the language spoken by the respondents, took place at their places of residence.

An analysis of the profile of the respondents shows that the sample is fairly representative of the main social groups. A higher completion rate among rural areas and men led to a slight over-representation of these two categories in the sample.

An apparent over-representation of `Dalits' in the sample could be the result of the existence of many `Dalit' communities that are not recognised as Scheduled Castes.

The fieldwork for the survey was coordinated by K.C. Suri (Andhra Pradesh), Sandhya Goswami (Assam), Rakesh Ranjan (Bihar), Baba Maya Ram (Chhattisgarh), Pushkar Raj (Delhi), Priyavdan M. Patel (Gujarat), Harish Kumar (Haryana), Rekha Chowdhary and Gul Mohammed Wani (Jammu and Kashmir), Harishwar Dayal (Jharkhand), Sandeep Shastri (Karnataka), Sajad Ibrahim (Kerala), Ram Shankar (Madhya Pradesh), Nitin Birmal (Maharashtra), Surya Narayan Mishra (Orissa), Ashutosh Kumar (Punjab), Sanjay Lodha (Rajasthan), G. Koteswara Prasad (Tamil Nadu), Sudhir Kumar (Uttar Pradesh east), A.K. Verma (Uttar Pradesh central), Mirza Asmer Beg (Uttar Pradesh west) and Suprio Basu (West Bengal). The survey was directed by Sanjay Kumar of the CSDS.

The central team that designed, coordinated and analysed the survey comprised Yogendra Yadav, Sanjay Kumar, Praveen Rai, Sanjeer Alam, Vikas Gautam, K.A.Q.A. Hilal, Himanshu Bhattacharya and Kanchan Malhotra of the CSDS and Professor Rajeeva L. Karandikar of Cranes Software International Limited.

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