Districts

Since 1991 in India, the crime rates of both property-related crimes and violent crimes, except crimes against women, have fallen significantly. While the decreasing trend is undisputed in Western nations, the perception in India is that the crime data has been manipulated by the police. The examination of constituent units composed of a diverse selection of districts in India suggests that the trends are generally similar across the country and are not an outcome of deliberate police practices. Police practices do not present any evidence of geographical bias in the registration of crime.

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Creating Long Panels Using Census Data (1961–2001)

Vol. 52, Issue No. 29, 22 Jul, 2017

Hemanshu Kumar, Rohini Somanathan

Official data in India are mostly published at the state or district level. Multi-year analyses of these data are made difficult by the many changes in state and district boundaries that have occurred since the first comprehensive census of independent India in 1961. Between 1961 and 2001, the number of states and union territories in India increased from 26 to 35, and the number of districts increased from 339 to 593. There were several changes in both names and boundaries. We document these changes and use them to construct regions of amalgamated districts with constant boundaries.

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Linking Indian Census with National Sample Survey

Vol. 36, Issue No. 09, 03 Mar, 2001

Mamta Murthi, P V Srinivasan, S V Subramanian

The Indian census provides the longest time-series on social and economic change in India and is a rich source of information on demographic variables. However the census does not include individual/household consumption and expenditure data, making its use in district-level policy analysis difficult. One way around the problem is to import this information from other sources, such as the National Sample Survey (NSS). Although the NSS does not sample every district in the country the sample sizes are reasonably large at the level of the NSS region. This opens up the possibility of using these estimates of consumption and poverty in conjunction with the census. This paper documents how a consistent time-series can be constructed for the two most recent censuses as a particular illustration of how the census and the NSS can be used together.