National Statistics Office (NSO), Coordination and Quality Control Division (C&QCD) Zonal Office, North-Eastern Zone, under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India organised a one-day Zonal level training on National Household Income Survey (NHIS) in Guwahati l today.
Among the ensuing surveys undertaken by NSO, a key new initiative is the National Household Income Survey (NHIS), which will be conducted for a period of one year starting from April 2026. This first-ever pan-India survey marks a significant milestone in addressing long-standing data gaps.
The training was attended by the senior officers, survey supervisors and survey enumerators from regional and sub-regional offices of the NSO, Field Operations Division (FOD) in 8 States of North Eastern Zone as well as C&QCD, Zonal Office, NEZ. Officers from NSO, Household Survey Division, MoSPI served as the resource persons for the one-day training.
Welcoming the participants, N Mohondas Singh, Director, NSO Zonal Office, Guwahati, highlighted the significance of the upcoming nationwide income survey — the first of its kind to be undertaken by the National Statistics Office (NSO). He underlined the crucial role of field functionaries, urging them to conduct the survey carefully and in-depth probing while collecting income-related information to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data.
Delivering the inaugural address virtually, Sunitha Bhaskar, Additional Director General, Field Operations Division (FOD), NSO, HQ New Delhi emphasised the importance of paying close attention to minute details across the various blocks of the survey schedule to maintain data quality and consistency and encouraged all the participants to make full use of this one-day training by engaging in the technical session as well as the interactive session.
The technical session commenced with opening remarks by Dr. Amitava Saha, Deputy Director General, Household Survey Division, NSO, MoSPI who joined the programme virtually. He briefed the trainees on the key challenges involved in collecting household income data across different sections of society. He noted that affluent respondents may be hesitant to disclose information due to concerns about taxation, while vulnerable households may fear exclusion from social welfare benefits.
Given the significance of the survey, the one-day zonal level training will be followed by a series of Regional Training Camps (RTCs) across all Field Operations Division (FOD) Regional Offices in the North Eastern Zone (NEZ) before actual field work starts to ensure wider coverage and thorough preparedness of field officials.
The National Household Income Survey (NHIS) is designed to give a clear and detailed picture of how people are living and how income is distributed across the country. It will helps in understanding where income comes from, how different sectors of the economy are performing, and how earnings from work, investments, and land are shared among our population.
The findings from the survey will play a crucial role in shaping better policies — whether universal programmes that benefit everyone or targeted interventions aimed at supporting specific socio-economic groups. Importantly, the data will also help to assess how income distribution affects household well-being, including access to essential goods and services such as food, healthcare, education, and housing. This survey will cover the whole of the Indian Union except the villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain difficult to access throughout the year.
