Who produces India’s time-use statistics
The 2024 Time Use Survey was produced by the National Statistics Office within the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, or MoSPI. Its report credits the Household Survey Division with developing the methodology, processing the data and preparing the report. Field Operations Division carried out the fieldwork, while Coordination and Quality Control Division coordinated survey activities. It also acknowledges guidance from the Technical Advisory Group, the Steering Committee for NSS surveys and the National Statistical Commission. MoSPI, 2024 report, Preface
The route from a household to a national estimate has several steps. The survey uses a stratified sample, with villages or urban sampling units selected first and households selected within them. Its year is divided into four quarters to spread collection through the seasons. Interviewers collect the diary information, activities are coded, and the estimation procedure uses sampling multipliers to produce estimates for the relevant population groups. A household’s record is therefore an input into a weighted estimate, rather than a census of everyone’s day. MoSPI, 2024 report, Appendix D
From a household to a national number
- 01Sample householdsSelected villages and urban units
- 02Record the previous day48 half-hour slots, ages six and over
- 03Code and allocate activitiesICATUS 2016; equal shares within a slot
- 04Apply sampling multipliersWeighted rates and average minutes
Each step can affect what the final number means. Who is selected, who answers for a household member, which short activities get recorded, and how simultaneous tasks share a slot all matter. Published questionnaires, definitions and estimation methods allow readers to examine those choices. The methods behind a time-use statistic belong alongside the headline it supports.
That makes the time visible in a survey. Whether it also enters GDP depends on a different boundary.