'Millennium Survey' to assess quality of life

By Divya Sreedharan

BANGALORE, JAN. 27. Even as the country gears up for Census 2001, a small City-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) is quietly going about an unofficial country-wide Millennium Survey of its own.

The NGO in question is the much-respected Public Affairs Centre known for its systematic Report Cards on the working of governments (and government utilities). On Thursday, the PAC released its report on the first year of the Krishna Government.

The PAC's latest endeavour is the Millennium Survey. According to Dr. K. Gopakumar, PAC member, this is meant to "take stock of the prevailing country-wide situation in sectors concerning health, road and transport, education, governance and even the public distribution system (PDS)". He maintains that this survey is different from the imminent Census 2001.

"A Census operation is concerned with numbers. It will tell us how many people are there in the country. But that doesn't tell us anything about the quality of life they live. This aspect is what the Millennium Survey will find out," Dr. Gopakumar told The Hindu.

The survey will be done by ORG-MARG Limited (which brought out the Report Card on Karnataka governance), and it will cover 23 states, except Assam and Kashmir ("because of the prevailing situation there"), and 32,600 respondents. "There will also be 5,000 independent observations to cross-check the data tabulated by ORG-MARG. This means that 25 per cent of all the samples will be re-visited by the independent observers. Moreover, we at PAC will have our own quality checks," Dr. Gopakumar explains.

As of now, however, the survey is still under wraps because the PAC is awaiting permission from the Planning Commission. But, Dr. Gopakumar expects the approval "any day now", and says that all the technicalities are in place. "Once we get the green signal, ORG-MARG will begin its work simultaneously in all the states. He believes that the entire tabulation will take eight months, i.e, three to four months for the process and another four months for PAC to come out with a report.

National data base: The Millennium Survey will be a National Database of the quality of life in the country. Besides, it will help gauge citizens' awareness of rights and social issues. "We will find out whether they are discriminated by gender or caste, whether they can exercise their franchise and even their experiences with the law -- the police and the courts," Dr. Gopakumar says.

Those surveyed will comprise 40 per cent women. "This is after taking the national man:woman ratio into account," explains the PAC member. Some issues will have only women respondents, for example the household survey of the drinking water situation.

Dr. Gopakumar believes that such surveys are important because they highlight little-known facts. "Since it is a substantial random survey, aspects of rural healthcare will be highlighted -- the number of hospital beds, the quality and quantity of medicines available, and so on," he says.

Preparations for the survey began over a year ago, and ORG-MARG has already prepared bilingual questionnaires -- in English and the respective regional language. The PAC estimates that the survey will cost Rs. 1 crore. "The Ford Foundation is our regular funding agency and so is the National Foundation of India (NFI), but we are still looking out for other sources of revenue," says Dr. Gopakumar.

Development benchmark: The small 12-member PAC team believes that the survey will set benchmarks for development. "An independent assessment always challenges government figures. Besides, this can be used for the future. Five years from now, we can look at these parameters to find out if life has improved, and if not, why things are the same," Dr. Gopakumar points out.

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