The task for DATA COLLECTION will be undertaken by deploying the both using paper questionnaire as well as Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices. PRICE team will engage external experts in conceptualizing/finalising the scope of study and accordingly will develop survey instruments. PRICE will deploy sufficient number of field staff including State Coordinators, Supervisors, Interviewers and others to collect quality data in stipulated time line following best practices.
The following major tasks will be envisaged for conducting the Primary Data Collection.
TASK 1: Pre-testing of Survey Instruments - Before launching the main survey in all major regions (5) of the country, we will do the pilot test of survey instruments to finalise the same. During the pilot phase the flow of questionnaires, time taken to canvass the questionnaire, process of taking photographs of CWE, entering the data and linking photographs with the data file would be assessed. At every stage of the pilot, the professionals from PRICE will be engaged and the experiences during the pilot phase will be incorporated to make desirable changes in the approach and survey content.
TASK 2: Translation of Survey Instruments - The survey instruments will be translated into the major Indian regional languages. The translation will be undertaken simultaneously in different states. The translated survey instruments will be back-translated into English by separate teams in respective states. The translation and back translation of questionnaires is expected to take one week each.
TASK 3: Digitisation of Survey Instruments - The final survey instruments will be digitised (IT friendly) in major languages and will be tested for hassle free collection of data, its transfer/loading to the server. Digitisation of survey instruments will assure the real time data collection and will help in implementing total quality control measures.
TASK 4: Training of Trainers - At the start of the project we will have a training of trainers’ (ToT) workshop in Delhi. All the core team members, zonal research and field coordinators, Analysis/ IT Head and field executives will be trained in Delhi for 5 days. During the ToT, all the survey instruments will be discussed in detail.
The professionals and field executives responsible for the state would manage the selection and deployment of the interviewers and supervisors. The recruitment of interviewers and supervisors would be made from our existing panel of field interviewers and supervisors. In case fresh recruitments have to be made, candidates having at least a bachelor degree in any of the social science subject, who can read and write English, would be recruited as supervisors and interviewers.
All supervisors will have at least 5-6 years’ experience in survey work. It is estimated that in order to complete the data collection from desired number of sample households in 6 months, around 200 interviewers and 40 supervisors would be deployed. Around 20 percent extra interviewers and supervisors will be recruited to account for attrition after the training and dismissal of candidates whose work is not up to the expectation.
TASK 5: Training of Field Staff - All the interviewers and supervisors deployed for the study will be given 5 days intensive training by the professionals and field executives who had participated in the ToT. The training of interviewers would comprise both classroom as well as field practice. The classroom training sessions would involve an orientation on the objectives of the study, instructions in interviewing techniques, field procedures for the survey, contents of the questionnaire along with its concepts and definitions in clear detail and quality control system. The team will also brief clear output requirements in terms of capturing the spelling of the name correctly (using available secondary records like ration card/BPL card, etc.) and taking the photograph correctly to clearly display facial features, ensuring sufficient illumination, and placing the person against a light background so that the details are clear.
Mock calls would also be conducted in the classroom before taking them to field for trial calls. Trial calls by supervisors and interviewers would be made in order to ensure a clear understanding of each item in the questionnaires. Only those trainees performing satisfactorily in the training programme would be selected for the survey.
TASK 6: Data Collection - The fieldwork for the primary data will be carried out simultaneously in all the regions of the country. In order to ensure quality of training and monitoring, the training of interviewers and supervisors will be conducted in phases. We expect to complete the household survey in all the states/ UTs within a period of 6 months. The usual team composition for carrying out the field work will be one supervisor and five interviewers. It is expected that one interview will be completed in around 90 minutes. Based on this assumption, we expect one interviewer to complete 5 interviews per day. On an average there will be around 32 weaver households in a village.
TASK 7: Supervision, Quality Monitoring and Data Validation - In a large scale study, supervision and monitoring is important to ensure that data being collected match the best standards of quality. Each interviewer will check the filled in questionnaires for its completeness. The filled in schedules will be checked by supervisor on a sample basis. The supervisor will make back checks in 10% of the sample locations.
Besides the supervisors, field executive and PRICE professionals would also closely monitor the fieldwork. Each professional will monitor the work of one region. The core PRICE study team members would also visit the field to monitor the quality of the field.
TASK 8: Data Processing and Analysis – Primary data collected will be checked for its completeness through adopting a standard statistical mechanism of consistency checks and validations. Clean and consistent data will be analyzed by deploying the standard statistical tools and techniques.
