About TNHPS @ MIDS

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The Tamil Nadu Household Panel Survey (TNHPS) aims to act as an enabler for achieving the long-term development vision of the Government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN). This vision of development articulated in Tamil Nadu points to both strategies and programs that aim to achieve rapid development in a sustainable and equitable manner. The success of these government programs and/or strategies requires for them to be assessed with periodic, validated data and monitoring of economic and social development indicators. The rising importance of ‘data-based governance’ in development efforts also requires scientific and systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data. The TNHPS fits into these requirements with its aim to provide periodic, robust and well-analysed data on specific socio-economic development indicators. It is designed as a longitudinal survey where a set of sample households in the state of Tamil Nadu will be surveyed at specific intervals to analyse the change in their socio-economic conditions over time.

 

The TNHPS aims to analyse how individuals, families, communities, and society are transforming in the state of Tamil Nadu. Understanding this transformation is important for data-driven policy making and for the society at large in today’s modern world where open links with other states and countries lead to enormous movement of people, ideas, technology, capital, and goods and services. The TNHPS also aims to invest in human capital and capacity building in the data collecting agencies (such as the Department of Economics and Statistics (DES)) of the state by adopting new technical systems designed to gather data and to undertake efficient monitoring, retrieval, and analysis of these data. In addition, state employees, other researchers, and policymakers with an interest in undertaking, evaluating, or utilizing survey data would also benefit from this capacity building through outreach and education activities.

 

Broad objectives of TNHPS

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1. To gather data on a range of socio-economic characteristics in the districts of TN and to analyse patterns of change in income, occupational structures and so on.

2. To analyse the role of government policies in enhancing household welfare and to study the impact.

3. To build capacity at the state level for digital data deployment, collection and management.

 

The TNHPS has created the landmark as India’s first and only household panel survey initiated and funded by any state government. In the absence of updated census estimates, TNHPS emerges as an important source of comprehensive and updated information on demographic, and socio-economic indicators in the state. The TNHPS also marks the transition from traditional Pen and Paper Interviews (PAPI) to Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) and serves as a crucial component of the state's commitment to evidence-based policymaking in Tamil Nadu.

 

As per the original plans, the TNHPS was designed to begin with a Pre-Baseline Survey (PBS) 2018-19, followed by a Baseline survey or Wave 1 (2022) and subsequent periodic surveys (Wave 2, Wave 3, etc.) to measure changes in the social and economic domains of households in the state. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and extended lockdown measures delayed the launching of the baseline survey. However, the availability of PBS data with updated information on some of the key socioeconomic indicators, especially on income, employment and demographic profiles of 2,12,282 households in Tamil Nadu enabled the TNHPS team to conduct four rounds of telephonic survey under the Tamil Nadu Covid Pulse Survey (TNCPS). Four rounds of TNCPS collected critical information on the impact of COVID-19 on different aspects of the economy and society in the state and acted as an important source of information and policy inputs for the state while managing the pandemic.

 

TNHPS was initiated in collaboration with the Survey Research Center (SRC) at the University of Michigan in the United States and the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) in Chennai in collaboration with the Government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN). After the completion of TNHPS-PBS, MIDS took the lead role in designing and implementing the TNCPS and TNHPS-Baseline Survey in collaboration with the Department of Economics and Statistics (DES) GoTN.

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​About MIDS

The Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) was founded by Dr. Malcolm S Adiseshiah and Mrs. Elizabeth Adiseshiah, in January 1971, shortly after Dr. Adiseshiah's retirement as Deputy Director-General of UNESCO. In 1976 the Government of India through the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, sent a mission to study the possibility of developing MIDS into a national institute of social science research. On the recommendations of the mission, the Institute was reconstituted as a National Institute in March 1977 under the joint sponsorship of the Government of India through the ICSSR and the Government of Tamil Nadu. The trustees gifted to the reconstituted National Institute its land and buildings, its library, furniture and equipment and a cash endowment. The Reserve Bank of India established a Chair in applied research in regional economics at the Institute in 1985. 

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Know more about MIDS Chennai: https://www.mids.ac.in/