Megaurbanisation and Public Health Research: Theoretical Dimensions

Abstract

Along with the special land-utilization experiments and socioeconomic type studies, an auxiliary study on the cost of field enumeration, that is, time taken in the filling up of a consumption schedule was carried out by the West Bengal field staff of the Indian Statistical Institute during the years 1957–58 and 1958–59. These enquiries were taken up during the slacks in between crop seasons when the normal land-utilization work had to be kept in abeyance. Two rural centres in Sainthia and Bhahan in the district of Birbhum were selected for this purpose. Besides, the semi-urban section of Sainthia and the city area of Calcutta constituted two other centres. The centres were chosen rather arbitrarily according to convenience and the surveys were spread over different parts of a year. The enquiry as a whole could not, thus, be carried out as a single planned experiment. The accounting periods differ from center to center and the whole coverage is a representation of a few typical regions in the State of West Bengal. A questionnaire for the collection of household consumption data consists of a number of blocks representing the different groups of consumption blocks items. The chapter presents studies on the survey of total household expenditure covered in separate enquiries relating to food clothing, education, medical, ceremonials, amusements, and litigation.