CHENNAI: After the 73rd and 74th Amendments, demand for accurate information on indebtedness and health care at district, block, and village levels is increasing and efforts should be made to see how it can be met, Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation G.K. Vasan said here on Wednesday.

State and local governments required these statistics for decentralised planning.

Inaugurating a national seminar on surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) on `Land and livestock holdings, debt and investment, and morbidity health Care,' Mr. Vasan said there had been an increasing demand for NSS surveys from researchers, academic communities and national and international bodies. The surveys would help them undertake further research on the data sets.

Quantitative information

The objective of the survey on land and livestock holdings, Mr. Vasan said, was to collect information on ownership of land by households and details on the operational holdings. The survey on debt and investment was conducted to obtain quantitative information on assets, incidence of indebtedness, capital formation and other indicators on rural/urban economy relevant for developing the credit structure, planning and development.

Another survey on morbidity and health care focussed on self reported morbidity and utilisation of health care services provided by the private and public sector together with expenditure incurred by households for availing these. These services would be useful in a big way to the country's planners and policy makers.

Secretary, Department of Project Implementation, R.C. Panda, said these surveys were being conducted on a rational basis. The NSSO had been providing excellent details, which were being used by policy planners.

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