Labour Bureau launches two of the five all-India surveys

The Labour Bureau has recently been tasked with five major All India Surveys by the Government of India. The five surveys are the All-India Survey of Migrant Workers, All-India Survey on Domestic Workers, All-India Survey on Employment generated in Transport Sector, All-India Survey of Employment Generated by Professionals and All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES). These surveys have been developed and designed by Labour Bureau under the technical guidance of an expert group chaired by Prof S. P. Mukherjee and co-chaired by Dr Amitabh Kundu. As on date there have been 60 expert group meetings that have worked on developing these scientific and robust survey instruments.

The five surveys have been worked upon simultaneously and will be launched in a phased manner keeping in mind the constraints arising from pandemic. The first surveys to be launched are the All-India Survey of Migrant Workers and All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES). These surveys will be path breaking in their “Paperless” data collection approach due to use of tablet PCs in the field work, these tablets are equipped with latest software application. Use of latest technology is likely to reduce the survey completion time by at least 30 – 40%. The Labour Bureau is being aided by BECIL, a Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to provide the IT support. In another first these surveys will be conducted in major regional languages.

A closer look at each of the survey objectives are:

1. All-India Survey of Migrant Workers – To study the kind of employment related migration undertaken by workers, the details of working and living conditions faced by them and impact of COVID 19 on their world of work.

2. All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES) – The survey would provide the employment estimates for establishments employing 10 or more workers as well as those with employing 9 or less workers. This highly useful establishment based survey will provide crucial data on the changes in employment situation across the selected sectors on a quarterly basis.

3. All-India Survey on Domestic Workers – The survey will be instrumental in estimating the number of domestic workers in the country for the first time ever. Some additional specific objectives are to collect data on incidence and characteristics of households with domestic workers and the average number of domestic workers engaged by different types of households.

4. All-India Survey on Employment generated in Transport Sector – Estimates for employment generated in the transportation sector in the country will be generated using this survey.

5. All-India Survey of Employment Generated by Professionals – The survey will help in the estimation of employment generated by professions such as lawyers, medical professionals, cost accountants and chartered accountants.

These surveys will plug-in the data gap on various aspects of labour and employment as acknowledged by the Hon’ble Minister of Labour and Employment, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar. These surveys will aide evidence-based policy making processes.

Shri DPS Negi, Director General, Labour Bureau stated that under the able guidance of the expert group and with full support from the Ministry, the Bureau could adhere to the timeline of launch and today launched two of the five All India Surveys one on Migrant workers and other the AQEES. While lauding the efforts of Expert Group and the Bureau officials, he also informed that Bureau is leaving no stone unturned to ensure successful completion of the field work of these surveys. Since last few months, the Bureau has been imparting regular intensive trainings to the field investigators and supervisors under these surveys to ensure quality results.

He also informed that in the coming days, as committed the Bureau will launch the remaining three surveys also. He also informed that the Bureau which is a premier labour statistics organisation in the country, will live upto the expectations and produce high quality results under all these All India Surveys.