The India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2005
[Desai, Sonalde, Amaresh Dubey, B.L. Joshi, Mitali Sen, Abusaleh Shariff and Reeve Vanneman. 2010. India Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. 234] is a nationally representative, multi-topic survey of 41,554 households in 1,503 villages and 971 urban neighborhoods across
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Two one-hour interviews in each household covered topics concerning health, education, employment, economic status, marriage,
fertility
Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...
, gender relations, and
social capital
Social capital is "the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively". It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships ...
. Children aged 8-11 completed short reading, writing, and arithmetic tests. Additional village, school, and medical facility interviews are also available.
A follow-up survey was conducted in 2012 that revisited over 40,000 of the same households as the 2005 survey. This makes the IHDS unique in India as a large-scale survey where results from two time periods can be directly compared.
This survey was designed by Professors Sonalde Desai and Reeve Vanneman from
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
and researchers from the
National Council of Applied Economic Research
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research think tank. Established in New Delhi in 1956, it acquired considerable national and international standing wi ...
and funded by the