Parliament Question: National Household Income Survey

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2782 TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.08.2026 NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME SURVEY

2782. SMT. MALA RAJYA LAXMI SHAH:

SHRI VISHWESHWAR HEGDE KAGERI:

SHRI YOGENDER CHANDOLIA:

SHRI MUKESHKUMAR CHANDRAKAANT DALAL:

SMT. MAHIMA KUMARI MEWAR:

SHRI SATISH KUMAR GAUTAM:

SHRI PRAVEEN PATEL:

SHRI BALABHADRA MAJHI:

SMT. SHOBHANABEN MAHENDRASINH BARAIYA:

SHRI RAHUL SINGH LODHI:

SHRI BIBHU PRASAD TARAI:

Will the Minister of STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME

IMPLEMENTATION be pleased to state:

(a) the objectives and structural details of the inaugural National Household Income Survey scheduled for 2026-27 to track comprehensive domestic income data;

(b) whether the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha Constituency in the State of Odisha has been covered under the said survey and if so, the details thereof;

(c) the projected utility of the survey findings in promoting evidence- based governance and refining the precision of beneficiary targeting for social welfare programmes and assessing household income and socio- economic conditions in Nabarangpur Lok Sabha Constituency;

(d) whether the methodological framework has undergone rigorous pre-testing and expert validation to guarantee high statistical accuracy and national representativeness particularly in Nabarangpur Lok Sabha Constituency of Odisha and if so, the details thereof;(e) the protocols put in place to protect the privacy of individual respondents while facilitating transparent dissemination of the aggregate findings for the public; and

(f) whether aggregated findings relating to Nabarangpur Lok Sabha Constituency would also be made public and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION; MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE [RAO INDERJIT SINGH]

(a) and (b): Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

(MoSPI) is conducting the first full-fledged National Household Income Survey (NHIS) during April 2026-March 2027. The objective of NHIS survey is to provide information on people's living conditions, income patterns and income distribution across different segments of the population as well as also across different geographies. Estimates of income generated from NHIS aim to allow analysis of sources and patterns of income generation. In NHIS, survey information on income earned by one or more members of the household from different sources like (i) Regular wage/salary, (ii) Casual work, (iii) Self-employment in agriculture/non-agriculture, (iv) Transfer receipts and (v) Income from Assets are collected. NHIS is conducted across all States/UTs of the Indian Union including Odisha except some villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year.

(c) : The data generated from NHIS aims to provide benchmark estimates of average per household or average per capita income segregated by different income classes, sector, employment type (salaried, casual, self-employed), source of income, region, etc. These can be used for evidence-based policy formulation and also for measurement of the success or failure of policy interventions.

Further, information collected in NHIS can be used for identification of localized pockets of distress and structural income bottlenecks, enabling to deploy area-based interventions like introduction of targeted programmes or infrastructure grants.

(d) : A Technical Expert Group (TEG) comprising various domain experts has been constituted by MoSPI to oversee the core framework of the National Household Income Survey (NHIS). The TEG is responsible for finalizing the survey concepts and definitions; identifying data gaps and validation requirements; providing guidance on surveyschedules/questionnaires, survey instruments, sampling design, sample size, estimation procedures, data validation; conducting pilot surveys/pre-testing, etc. Before the launch of the survey, a pre-testing exercise was conducted to assess their clarity, comprehension, interpretability and acceptability.

(e) : MoSPI safeguards the privacy of respondents by treating all unit- level information as confidential, suppressing personal identifiers before any disclosure, etc. Further, unit-level data released for research purposes are anonymized. At the same time, the Ministry promotes transparency by disseminating aggregate-level survey findings following established data dissemination protocols that enable public access to statistical information while protecting respondent confidentiality.

(f) : The reports of all surveys conducted by MoSPI are made available in public domain. Constituency-wise estimates are not released separately. *****