An assessment of the labour statistics system in India

The assessment describes in detail the sources and contents of labour statistics in India with a view to identifying gaps with respect to the requirements of various users, the national policy-makers, researchers and international organizations.

The assessment describes the agencies and their statistical activities in the sphere of labour and reviews the availability of statistics by different subjects as listed in the national and ILO system of statistics. Assessment is made of statistics in different subjects in terms of the following:
• Sources – single, multiple, comparability and compatibility
• Coverage – categories of labour: all, wage labour etc., institutional sectors: public/private, organised/ unorganised, economic activity sectors, regions and states
• Method –Census, sample, and its adequacy for generalization and estimation
• Frequency – ad-hoc or regular or periodic, suitability for assessing short and long term changes
• Time taken in dissemination
• Extent to which collected data are processed and disseminated by collecting agency
• Accessibility to the unpublished raw data

Based on the assessment of sources and contents of available statistics on these criteria, attempt was made to identify limitations, inadequacies and major gaps in data system. Certain items and subjects of emerging importance on which data are not or not regularly available, are also identified. Finally, a set of recommendations is presented for improvements in the Indian labour statistics system.