This is a report on a socio-economic survey of households conducted in Taliparamba legislative constituency in Kannur district, Kerala. The survey was conducted at the direction of James Mathew, the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the constituency and as part of an Integrated Social Security Project. We spent two days (September 16 and 17, 2016) in the constituency at the invitation of James Mathew, meeting elected representatives and survey investigators.

Introduction

The socio-economic survey was conducted in order to gather information relevant to the Integrated Social Security Project. The project attempts to bring together several Central, State, and Local Self-Government schemes for the overall development of marginalised households in the seven panchayats and two municipalities of Taliparamba Constituency.

Taliparamba is one of the 11 Legislative Assembly constituencies in Kannur, a district in the north of Kerala. The panchayats of the constituency are Pariyaram, Kurumathur, Chapparapadavu, Malappattam, Kuttyattur, Kolacheri, and Mayyil. The municipalities are Thaliparamba and Andhur. The total number of households in the constituency is about 60,000.

The Integrated Social Security Project is an attempt to coordinate the functioning of different developmental schemes at the constituency level. The project has been formulated with the help of local self-government representatives led by James Mathew. Elected representatives from the panchayats and the municipalities provide support to the survey and the project. Various experts who work on Central and State schemes on livelihood, housing, and health have been brought together s for formulating specific strategies for the project.

Objectives of the Survey

The objectives of the Integrated Social Security Project were as follows:

1) to provide livelihood opportunities for those households with an income of less than 15,000 rupees a month;

2) to provide housing for families without houses; and

3) to provide healthcare for bedridden patients and those who need further care.

Methodology of the Survey

This is a census-type survey. There are 61 questions in the schedule and almost all the questions collect information on categorical variables.

The survey questionnaire can be divided into the following sections:

1) Questions 1-5: General information on the household, such as the names of the members of the household, and information on social group, religion, and ration card.

2) Questions 6–15: Housing, drinking water, and household amenities.

3) Questions 16–18: Income of the household and ownership of land.

4) Questions 19–23: Agriculture, irrigation, and livestock.

5) Questions 24–37: Health information (including information on bed-ridden patients).

6) Questions 38 –43: Savings, expenditure, and debt information.

7) Questions 44 – 45: Community participation.

8) Questions 46 – 49: Membership in social security schemes, other insurance coverage.

9) Question 50: Information on the skills possessed by the head of the household.

10) Questions 51 – 61: Benefits received from the government in the last 15 years, healthcare, agricultural, and livelihood needs/preferences of the households, along with their willingness to pay for certain products/services in these sectors.

A team of selected volunteers in each panchayat/municipality canvasses the questionnaire.

The panchayat and municipality representatives were assigned the task of choosing six volunteers from each residents’ association. The residents’ association is a subset of a ward and covers about 50 to 100 households. The selected six volunteers are then split into three teams of two members each, and one team covers about 25 to 35 households for the survey.

The training for the survey was conducted under the supervision of the Department of Social Work, St. Joseph’s College, Pilathara. Preliminary training on the questions and the methods of collecting data was given to the volunteers.

Investigators visit each household with a printed schedule for data collection. A printed sheet with different codes for marital status, employment status, and livelihood preferences are given to the investigators. For other questions, the survey investigators mark selected options in the schedule.

The filled-in schedules are stored in the panchayat/municipality office. It was reported that the panchayat/municipality officials would start the data entry process through a computerised online system built by the Information Kerala Mission. The database system is based on MySQL with a web interface as the front end for entering data.

Observations

We obtained an overview of the constituency, including activities related to agriculture, along with future activities planned in the constituency, from the MLA.

Taliparamba is a constituency where most people gain incomes from non-agricultural sources. The most cultivated crop is coconut. In the recent past, the main activities related to agriculture in the constituency were organic farming and the activity of agro-service centres that provide training to agricultural workers and. Organic farming was estimated to generate about Rs. 5-7 lakhs seasonally within the constituency. We were told that carpentry, driving motor vehicles, and painting at construction sites were important sources of non-agricultural employment for men.

We visited Kurumathur and Pariyaram panchayat offices and examined the interview schedules. Kurumathur panchayat has an area of about 51 sq km. and is divided into 17 wards. Pariyaram panchayat covers an area of around 50 sq. km. and is divided into 18 wards. The panchayat presidents provided information on the steps taken by them in their panchayats for the survey. We interviewed the survey investigators from ward numbers 3 and 15 of Kurumathur panchayat on how they canvassed the schedule. The observations from these interactions are listed below in different subsections.

Use of categorical variables for the survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire collects information that is important for the three objectives specified by the project. For the elected representatives from the panchayats, the priority was on “need-based data collection.” The inclusion of categorical variables has helped the survey investigators cover a large number of households without spending excessive time on each one. Overall, the volunteers reported that they took around 30 minutes to collect information from a household.

The volunteers

The volunteers, men and women chosen for the survey, came from different political backgrounds. Surveyors were from the same locality as the households they surveyed, and their understanding of the households was used to correct information when inconsistencies appeared. When a head of household was reluctant to disclose information, volunteers explained the objectives of the survey and project and tried to persuade him or her to participate.

Definition of a household and household general information

Members of a family listed in a single ration card were considered to belong to a single household. When there were two ration cards within a large family, the family was considered as being two different households. Where there was no ration card, households were identified on the basis of the information furnished by nearby households and on the basis of investigators’ prior knowledge.

The general information collected through the questionnaire includes information on age, employment status, and marital status.

Calculation of income

Household income was not computed from information gathered in the survey. Volunteers recorded the income reported by the head of the household. Where the income reported was clearly inaccurate, the volunteers entered what they considered to be, on the basis of their local knowledge, a more accurate assessment of income. Investigators also collected data on various household assets (including means of transport and other durable commodities).

Information on agriculture

Investigators collected information on the extent of land cultivated, crops, and irrigation. The questionnaire does not deal with information about input use, marketing costs, or income from agriculture. Such information is, of course, necessary in order to assess whether alternative livelihood schemes involve the cultivation of various crops. From our interaction with panchayat representatives, we learned that these variables were dropped from the questionnaire because of the perception that agriculture does not pay when compared to other opportunities for group or self-employment.

Information on healthcare

This section of the questionnaire deals with information on bed-ridden patients, on healthcare insurance coverage, and on whether the household members require palliative care. There is also a question on the willingness to pay for palliative care or home-nurse services for the household.

Livelihood schemes and other employment opportunities

One question deals with preferences of the head of the household with respect to starting new livelihood schemes to enhance household incomes. The instruction sheet has 50 coded options that include various agricultural activities (e. g., rearing ornamental fish, rearing poultry, apiculture, and pig-raising) and non-agricultural activities (e.g., plumbing, wiring, and tailoring). This question is asked to all households regardless of their reported income. The people behind the survey were aware of the limitation of this question: households may indicate their preference for a livelihood scheme that is unrealistic, given the present capabilities of the household. The survey officials plan to overcome this limitation by conducting a second level of study after collecting preferences and before starting specific projects.

We believe that, in addition to questions on the preferences of households, there could have been questions on whether households were already beneficiaries of development schemes and on incomes derived from such sources. There is a question on whether the household has a MGNREGA job card, but not on the number of days they worked under the scheme. Our interaction with the panchayat representatives showed that the average number of days of work per household under MGNREGA was between 60 and 80 days in Pariyaram. The effectiveness of MGNREGA work and the support it lends to the household could have been captured with the inclusion of a question on the details of the scheme.

Other uses of the survey information

One of the major uses of this exercise, beyond aiding the developmental work in the constituency, is the creation of a panchayat-level database of households. The database can be used to identify the places where new support facilities can be opened at the local level. With the available data, further evaluations to study the impact of the “Integrated Social Security Project” can be initiated in the constituency.

Concluding Remarks

We found that the survey questionnaire collects a vast body of data. It is an exercise that builds on the participation of the people. As the questionnaire is simple to handle, the possibility of errors in data collection is kept low. The survey helps create a database that can act as a unique register at the constituency level.

The general information collected from this survey can be used for further study, for instance through sample surveys, to collect data on and study variables that are not part of this survey, including variables such as sources of income, existing livelihood schemes, and other employment details.