Sources of Population Data Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The Sample Registration System was set up to give reliable annual estimates of birth rates, death rates and infant mortality rates at the state and national levels. Migration rates are not an objective of the System; migration is studied through the Census and the National Sample Survey. So migration rates is the item that is not an objective.

Answer: D

The Population Census collects demographic, social and cultural characteristics (age, sex, religion, language) and economic characteristics (workers, occupation), but it does not collect information on the health of the population, which comes from health surveys and the vital registration systems. So characteristics related to health is the one not provided by the Census.

Answer: B

The Government of India set up the Population Data Committee in 1944, when it recognised how important population data were for planning. The years 1940, 1950 and 1954 are not the year of this Committee, so 1944 is the keyed answer.

Answer: B

The nodal agency for the National Family Health Survey in India is the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. It coordinated the three rounds with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as sponsor, and with international support.

The NIHFW in New Delhi is a training institute, the NIN in Hyderabad deals with nutrition, and the TISS in Mumbai is a social science institute, so none is the nodal agency.

Answer: B

The source for the calculation of those living below the poverty line in India is the National Sample Survey. The consumption expenditure surveys of the NSS give the distribution of household spending, and the Planning Commission uses it with the poverty line to find the percentage of poor.

The Census does not collect consumption data, the SRS records births and deaths, and the NFHS deals with health, so none of these gives the BPL count.

Answer: D

The Sample Registration System in India collects data on births and deaths only. It runs a continuous enumeration and a six monthly survey to estimate the birth rate, the death rate and the infant mortality rate.

Civil registration collects marriages and causes of death as well, but the SRS does not collect those, so the correct code is the one with only births and deaths.

Answer: C

The Sample Registration System provides reliable estimates of both fertility and mortality. It gives the birth rate, the total fertility rate, the death rate and the infant mortality rate every year for the country and the states.

The options that give only fertility or only mortality leave out one of the two, and so the third option is right.

Answer: D

The United Nations age-sex accuracy index considers all of the above. It takes the mean deviations of the age ratios for males from 100, and the same for females, and adds three times the mean of the differences in the reported sex ratios by age group.

The index is thus a joint measure made of the male age ratio score, the female age ratio score and the sex ratio score, and so 'All the above' is right.

Answer: B

The Sample Registration System in India became operational in 1969-70, after a pilot in 1964-65. It was started on a full scale by the Registrar General of India to give regular estimates of birth and death rates, as the registration of vital events was incomplete.

1963-64 was the time of a pilot, and 1973-74 and 1983-84 are later dates, so the second option is right.

Answer: C

The three rounds of the National Family Health Survey were conducted in 1992-93 (NFHS-1), 1998-99 (NFHS-2) and 2005-06 (NFHS-3). NFHS-1 was the first, and NFHS-3 added data on topics such as anaemia and HIV knowledge.

The other options give years such as 1998-99 for the first round, 2004-05 for the second, or 1995-96 and 2000-01, none of which match the survey schedule.

Each round used a larger sample than the last and added topics, and the three years in the correct option are the ones that anyone using the survey series quotes, which is why the other combinations fail.