The overarching scientific goal of this project is to understand the consequences of economic development and social change being experienced at disparate rates but generally rapidly and across the state of Tamil Nadu on demographic behavior and family outcomes, including contraceptive use and fertility, marriage, women’s labor force participation, children’s education, urbanization, health trajectories and emerging health problems, and intergenerational transmission of health, human capital, fertility, and social and economic status. Panel surveys provide a crucial tool for understanding and monitoring the needs of the poor, the dynamics of poverty and wellbeing, the effects of government and other programs, and life-course and intergenerational outcomes. To obtain high quality data suitable for longitudinal analyses on the dynamics of changes in the economy and society at the state level, the Government of Tamil Nadu (GOTN) commissioned the Tamil Nadu Household Panel Survey (TNHPS). SRC collaborated with the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) and the Department of Economics and Statistics (DES) within the GOTN to facilitate adoption of an approach to data collection new to Tamil Nadu for use in TNHPS, using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and a web-based, digital sample management system, along with the latest interviewer training procedures and survey monitoring and management to substantially improve the quality and timeliness of data while simultaneously lowering costs.
The SRC IU provided support through the conduct of trainings introducing the critical stages in the survey lifecycle, including survey quality, ethical considerations, study management, sampling, questionnaire and instrument technical design, pretesting, interviewer training, data collection, and data processing and ongoing support of all activities.