Household Income Survey (HIS) Launch

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is set to initiate the Household Income Survey (HIS) in February 2026, aiming to calculate the average income of rural and urban households in India.

Objective and Significance

• The survey is anticipated to offer a more comprehensive picture of living standards, poverty incidence, income and wealth disparities, and consumer behavior in comparison to the existing Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys.
• It will not replace the Consumption Expenditure Survey but complement it, addressing the difficulty of gathering reliable income data.
• The survey aims to incorporate methodologies from other countries to overcome challenges such as seasonality effects, lack of records, and hidden income.

Challenges in Data Collection

• Past efforts by the NSO to collect income data faced issues like seasonality, hidden income, and ambiguities in sampling, leading to a focus on expenditure surveys instead.
• Former surveys did not capture multiple income sources, especially in rural areas where individuals might have multiple occupations.
• Non-responsiveness and reluctance to disclose income details have previously hindered data collection efforts.

Previous Efforts

• The NSO's attempts in the 1950s and 1960s did not yield publishable data due to unreliability.
• The last significant effort, the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmer Households, was limited to farmer households and did not represent all agricultural households.

Conclusion

• The Household Income Survey is expected to fill the data gap, offering deeper insights into income patterns and disparities, which are crucial for understanding poverty and wealth inequality.
• The initiative is seen as a significant step towards improving welfare monitoring and policy-making in India.